LONDON (Reuters) — British police said Thursday that it arrested three people in connection with an attempted arson attack on the offices of dissident Iranian news station Iran International.

An ignited container was thrown Wednesday evening toward the premises of the Persian-language network’s parent evening, Volant Media, landing in a car park where the fire extinguished itself. No damage was reported and there were no injuries, the police said.

Two men, aged 19 and 21, and a 16-year-old boy were arrested on suspicion of arson endangering life. The arson attempt was not being treated as terrorism, but counterterrorism officers were involved in the investigation, police said.

Iran International said a suspicious vehicle was denied entry to its London site shortly before incendiary devices were thrown into a nearby parking lot.

It said it viewed the incident in the context of “growing threats and intimidation” directed at the organization and its journalists.

London’s Jewish community and Iranian diaspora increasingly targeted, says Met police

The incident came a day after police arrested two suspects following an attempted arson attack on a synagogue in north London, amid a wave of attacks on Jewish diaspora sites since the Iran war began on February 28.

Last month, several ambulances belonging to the Jewish volunteer emergency service Hatzolah were set alight while parked near a synagogue in the Golders Green area, also in north London.

Counterterror police were investigating the Golders Green fire as an antisemitic hate crime and looking into a claim of responsibility by a group with potential links to Iran, but have not declared it an act of terrorism.

Matt Jukes, a deputy commissioner for London’s Metropolitan Police, said in a statement on Thursday he understood why conflict overseas and heightened tensions in Britain would be “deeply worrying.”

“London’s Jewish communities and the Iranian diaspora in London have, in recent years, been increasingly targeted by individuals, groups and hostile states intent on spreading fear, hate and harm,” Jukes said.

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.

“We are dealing with an unprecedented level of national security investigations, some with suspected links to foreign states and many of those have dangerous and often reckless intentions,” Vicki Evans, senior national coordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing, told reporters on Thursday.

She added that the incidents had taken place against a backdrop of “global instability within which we’re seeing sustained and increasing aggressive and hostile activity.”

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

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