An ignited container was thrown towards the premises of the unnamed media outlet in Wembley on Wednesday evening [GETTY]
British police said on Thursday they had arrested three men in connection with an attempted arson attack on the offices of a Persian-language media organisation in northwest London.
An ignited container was thrown towards the premises of the unnamed media outlet in Wembley on Wednesday evening, landing in a car park where the fire extinguished itself. No damage was reported, and there were no injuries, the police said.
Officers later pursued a black car in which the suspects were reported to have fled the scene, which later crashed.
Two men, aged 19 and 21, and a 16-year-old boy were arrested on suspicion of arson, endangering life and taken into police custody. The arson attempt was not being treated as terrorism, but counterterrorism officers were involved in the investigation, police said.
The incident comes a day after police arrested two suspects following a separate attempted arson attack on a synagogue, also in north London, although the force said they were not being linked at this stage.
Last month, several ambulances belonging to the Jewish volunteer emergency service Hatzola were set alight while parked near a synagogue in the Golders Green area of north London.
The British authorities have previously warned that there is a threat to journalists working for Persian-language outlets that are critical of Iran’s government. In 2024, a journalist working for the television news network Iran International was stabbed in the leg near his home in south London.
Britain’s MI5 spy boss said last October that his agency and British police had tracked more than 20 Iranian-backed plots to kidnap or kill British nationals or individuals based in Britain who were regarded by Tehran as a threat.
