Mosque fire in England probed as possible arson hate crime days after Manchester synagogue attack

Police in the U.K. have issued a public appeal to identify two people in connection with a suspected arson attack on a mosque in the town of Peacehaven on England’s south coast. Authorities said Monday that emergency services were called after reports of a fire at a mosque over the weekend, and that “evidence from the scene suggests the fire was started deliberately.” 

Police are treating the attack as a possible hate crime, which came just days after a deadly terror attack outside a synagogue in Manchester, in northern England, that left two Jewish people dead. At least six people have been detained in connection with that attack, and the primary suspect was fatally shot by police at the scene.

On Sunday, the Sussex Police force released security camera images of two men they hope to identify in connection with the arson attack. The men appear in the images wearing black masks and dark clothing. 

The security video showed the two men approaching the front door of the mosque and then spraying an accelerant at the entrance and igniting a fire, according to the police, who said there were no injuries and that everyone at the mosque managed to escape. 

Emergency officials rushed to the scene Saturday at close to 10 p.m. local time and were able to promptly extinguish the fire, a spokesperson for East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service said.  

“This was an appalling and reckless attack which we know will have left many people feeling less safe,” Detective Inspector Gavin Patch said in a statement Sunday. “We are treating this as an arson with intent to endanger life and are continuing to pursue a number of lines of enquiry to identify those responsible.”

Katy Bourne, Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner, called the arson attack “the height of hateful criminality.”

“Sussex Police have put an enhanced presence at the scene and extra patrols at other places of worship across the county,” Bourne said on Sunday. 

The U.K. chapter of Amnesty International condemned the attack on Monday in a statement on X, saying it “follows months of increasing hostility to racialized and migrant communities in the U.K. — boosted by anti-migrant rhetoric across the political spectrum.” 

British police were still questioning, meanwhile, six people arrested on suspicion of terrorism offenses following last week’s stabbing and car ramming attack on the synagogue in Manchester. 

Jihad Al-Shamie, a British citizen of Syrian origin, was shot dead by police Thursday outside the Heaton Park Congregation Synagogue after he rammed a car into pedestrians, attacked them with a knife and tried to force his way into the building. 

Authorities said Friday that one of the two victims may have died of gunshot wounds fired by a police officer during the incident.