The Metropolitan Police said two men, aged 45 and 47, were arrested in London on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life. Both have been taken to a police station for questioning, News.Az reports, citing Euronews.
Officers are searching two properties in north London, a few kilometres from the scene of the attack in Golders Green.
Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said the arrests marked “an important breakthrough in the investigation”.
However, she noted that surveillance footage suggests three people were involved.
Police have not classified the incident as a terrorist attack but are investigating a claim of responsibility by a group with potential links to Iran.
The fire broke out early on Monday in Golders Green, a London neighbourhood with a large Jewish community, destroying four ambulances belonging to the volunteer organisation Hatzola Northwest.
Oxygen cylinders inside the vehicles exploded, shattering windows in a nearby apartment block.
The incident has further unsettled the local community, where concerns over security have already been heightened by the Israel–Hamas war in Gaza and what many describe as a rise in antisemitism.
The Metropolitan Police has stepped up security at Jewish schools, synagogues and community centres ahead of Passover next month, including what it described as “highly visible firearms patrols”.
The UK has accused Tehran of using criminal proxies to carry out attacks on European soil targeting opposition media outlets and Jewish communities.
Britain’s domestic intelligence service, MI5, says more than 20 “potentially lethal” Iran-backed plots were disrupted in the year up to last October.
Police are also examining a claim of responsibility posted on social media by a group calling itself Harakat Ashab al Yamin al Islamia, translated as the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right.
Israel’s government has described the group as recently formed, with suspected links to pro-Tehran networks, and says it has also claimed responsibility for synagogue attacks in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley said detectives are investigating the claim but that it is too early to attribute the attack to the Iranian state.
