A synagogue in the Belgian capitals of Brussels was vandalized and torched on Tuesday.
Vandals broke in and torched the fourth floor of the building.
The arson attack occurred at 5 a.m. in Brussels at the Anderlecht synagogue near the train station.
The caretaker’s wife and two children suffered smoke inhalation.
Israel National News reported:
Amid a wave of anti-Semitism in Europe, and just four months since deadly Brussels shooting, attackers set fire to a synagogue.
A fire broke out in a synagogue in the Belgian capitals of Brussels Tuesday, in what appears to be a “criminal” act, according to reports.
Belgian daily La Dernière Heure said that several people broke into synagogue, which is located in the predominantly Muslim neighborhood of Anderlecht, and ignited several fires on the fourth floor of the building.
The wife and two children of the synagogue’s caretaker suffered slight smoke inhalation in the fire on the top floor of the building, where they lived, said Laurens Dumont, a spokesman for the city prosecutor. The caretaker was absent at the time.
Dumont said “it would seem that the fire was set deliberately” at the synagogue in the Brussels neighborhood near the main train station, but the investigation was in its early stages.
“All leads are open,” Dumont said.
The synagogue was already targeted by a Molotov cocktail in 2010 “Neighbors had extinguished the flames,” recalled Guttmann.