March 23, 2026 / 3:58 AM EDT / CBS/AP
London — Police in London are investigating a suspected antisemitic hate crime after vehicles belonging to a Jewish ambulance service were set on fire early Monday morning.
Officers were called to Golders Green, a London neighborhood with a large Jewish population, after reports of a fire. Four ambulances belonging to Hatzola Northwest, a volunteer organization that provides emergency medical responses, were damaged, according to the London Fire Brigade.
Multiple cylinders on the vehicles exploded, causing windows to break in an adjacent block of flats, the fire service said. No injuries were reported and the fire has been brought under control. Nearby homes were evacuated as a precaution. Police said the incident is being treated as an antisemitic hate crime.
“We know this incident will cause a great deal of community concern and officers remain on scene to carry out urgent enquiries,” Police Superintendent Sarah Jackson said. She added police are looking for three suspects; no arrests have been made.
An eyewitness, Mark Reisner, who lives in the neighborhood, told Sky News he heard loud explosions and arrived “just as the third ambulance was blowing up.” “A very loud explosion, you sort of felt it go through your guts,” he said, adding the scene left residents “reeling with confusion and shock.”
Shomrim, a nonprofit neighborhood watch in the area, condemned the attack, saying it was “not only a criminal act of arson, but a targeted and deeply concerning incident affecting a vital emergency service serving the local Jewish community.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called it a “deeply shocking antisemitic arson attack,” saying “antisemitism has no place in our society,” according to Reuters.
The number of antisemitic incidents reported across the U.K. has risen since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in late 2023, the Community Security Trust said, recording 3,700 incidents in 2025, up from 1,662 in 2022. In October 2025, an attacker drove into people outside a Manchester synagogue celebrating Yom Kippur and stabbed one person to death; another person later died after being inadvertently shot by police.
An aerial view showed fire services monitoring the scene after the ambulances were set on fire next to Machzike Hadath Synagogue in Golders Green on March 23, 2026. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)