Melbourne, 6 December 2024 (dpa/MIA) - Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday condemned an early morning attack on a synagogue in Melbourne that caused significant damage, calling it an "outrage."

Police in the state of Victoria said arson and explosives investigators were on the scene of a suspicious fire at the Adass Israel Synagogue in the Ripponlea area in south-east Melbourne.

The city is the capital of the southern Australian state of Victoria.

"This is an outrage," Albanese told ABC Melbourne radio. "The violence and intimidation and destruction at a place of worship is something that we should never see in Australia. It's risk lives, it's clearly aimed at creating fear in the community."

Authorities got the call at about 4:10 am on Friday (1710 Thursday GMT) and were told that two men were inside the synagogue and had poured liquid on the floor, the police said.

A worshipper disturbed them and they fled. The man who confronted the two reportedly sustained injuries to his hand and was treated on the scene, the police reported.

No other injuries were reported but there was significant damage to the building.

"There was some banging on a door with some liquid thrown inside and was lit alight, the few people inside the synagogue ran outside the back door, one of them got burnt," Adass Israel Synagogue board member Benjamin Klein told ABC news.

Klein told ABC that he believes the fire had destroyed "a huge amount of furniture and holy books and Torah scrolls."

"It's quite horrendous and the community is really reeling from it," he said.

The fire brigade arrived with dozens of emergency services and was able to bring the fire under control within a short time.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog assured the Jewish community of the support and solidarity of the Israeli people.

On the social media platform X, he wrote: "I call on leaders in Australia and around the world, to strongly condemn this vile act of terror and to combat the intolerable rise of anti-Jewish racism worldwide."

Melbourne is home to the country's largest Jewish population, with 54,583 Jews living there according to a 2021 census, the Jewish Council of Australia (JCA) has reported. Sydney is number two, with 47,099. The two major cities combined are home to some 84% of Australian Jews.

Most Australian Jews are descendants of Holocaust survivors, according to the JCA, as many Jews who were persecuted before World War II in countries like Russia or later the Soviet Union, Ukraine, Poland or elsewhere, immigrated to the United States or Canada.

Photo: EPA