Suspected arson reported at London-area Jewish school

(JTA) — Police in the London area are reportedly investigating a suspected arson attack at a Jewish primary school.

The fire at the Talmud Torah Toldos Yakov Yoser school in Hackney, a north-eastern London borough, occurred on the night of Sept. 28, a Friday, and did not result in any injuries, The Jewish Chronicle reported.

The paper quoted Nick Bull, an agent of the Violent Crime unit in Shoreditch, as saying that “an investigator at the London Fire Brigade confirmed that no accelerant was used but believes that the fire was started on purpose, because two separate fires in two separate rooms were started at the same time.”

Security cameras did not cover the area, but police are still appealing for witnesses and information about the attack, the report said.

The website of the borough of Hackney says it is home to a large Haredi, ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, concentrated within a tight geographic area in the borough’s north. A study in 2007 estimated the community at around 15,409 or seven percent of Hackney’s population, while other estimates are somewhat higher, the website stated.

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