March 23, 2026 — London
Police in London are investigating a suspected antisemitic hate crime after four ambulances belonging to Hatzola Northwest were set on fire early Monday in Golders Green, a neighbourhood with a large Jewish population. The London Fire Brigade reported the vehicles were damaged and the blaze has been brought under control.
The fire caused multiple gas cylinders on the ambulances to explode, shattering windows in a nearby block of flats. Nearby homes were evacuated as a precaution, and there were no reported injuries. Officers remain at the scene to carry out urgent enquiries, police said.
Police Superintendent Sarah Jackson said the incident is being treated as an antisemitic hate crime. She added that detectives are searching for three suspects; no arrests have been made.
An eyewitness, Mark Reisner, told broadcasters he heard loud explosions and arrived “just as the third ambulance was blowing up,” describing the blast as a noise that “you sort of felt go through your guts.” He said residents were left shocked and confused by the scene.
Shomrim, a local neighbourhood watch group, condemned the attack, calling it “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 described the incident as a “deeply shocking antisemitic arson attack,” adding that “antisemitism has no place in our society.”
The incident comes amid a rise in reported antisemitic incidents in the U.K. since the Israel-Hamas war began in late 2023. The Community Security Trust recorded 3,700 incidents in 2025, up from 1,662 in 2022. In October 2025, a separate attack outside a Manchester synagogue left one person fatally stabbed and another later killed after police fired their weapon.
Police and fire services continued to monitor the Golders Green scene on Monday as inquiries and investigations proceeded.