Mask-wearing arsonists set fire to the Adass Israel Synagogue before dawn on Friday, police said, gutting much of the building but causing no serious injuries.
The fire sparked widespread condemnation, including an accusation from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that it was linked to “anti-Israel” sentiment from within Australia’s centre-left Labor government.
Police have “three suspects in that matter, who we are pursuing”, Victorian police chief commissioner Shane Patton told a news conference.
Investigations over the weekend had made “significant progress”, Patton said, declining to provide further details of the operation.
Officials from the federal and state police as well as Australia’s intelligence agency met Monday and concluded that the fire was “likely a terrorist incident”, the police chief said.
“Based on that, I am very confident that we now have had an attack, a terrorist attack on that synagogue,” he said, meaning the fire was being investigated by counter-terrorism police.
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© Agence France-Presse
