A firebomb attack at a synagogue in Australia last week is being investigated as an act of terrorism, police have said.
The Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne had to be evacuated after a fire began at around 4am local time on Friday.
The fire fully engulfed the building, causing extensive damage and leaving a person injured.
Community leaders reported seeing firebombs thrown inside the Jewish house of worship.
Victoria’s police chief commissioner, Shane Patton, said on Monday it was a targeted attack.
“I am very confident that we now have had an attack, a terrorist attack, on that synagogue,” he told a press conference. “It’s clear that the fire was targeted, it was callous and an horrific attack on the synagogue. But by default, it is an attack on Jewish people.”
State and federal police and the country’s domestic intelligence service, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, were working together to identify three suspects wanted for the attack, Mr Patton said.
Victoria premier Jacinta Allan said the declaration from police was a significant step for the Jewish community. “Our thoughts again today must be with the Jewish community here in Melbourne, the Jewish community around the Adass Israel synagogue, indeed across Australia,” she said. “This has been an awful, evil, anti-Semitic, and now we know it has been confirmed as a terrorist attack.”
The Victoria police said they decided to treat it as a terrorist attack after a meeting with the federal police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.
“This is now a terrorism investigation,” federal police deputy commissioner Krissy Barrett said. “We are already well-prepared, well-briefed and well-progressed.”
Mr Patton denied the use of firearms in the attack after concerns were raised following the recovery of a damaged two calibre bullet on the footpath outside the synagogue following the attack.
“We have nothing to suggest whatsoever that has any connection,” he said. “Nonetheless, as a result of completeness, we have taken that away for examination.”
The federal police, meanwhile, launched an antisemitism task force on Monday called Abalight.
“Special Operation Abalight will be an agile and experienced squad of counterterrorism investigators who will focus on threats, violence, and hatred towards the Australian Jewish community and parliamentarians,” police chief Reece Kershaw told a news conference.
