German synagogue attacked with incendiary device

An incendiary device was thrown at a door of a synagogue in northwestern Germany on Friday but caused only minor damage, police said.

The incident in the city of Oldenburg happened early Friday afternoon. The fire caused by the device was discovered quickly and didn’t spread, and the fire service didn’t need to extinguish it.

No event was taking place in the building at the time, and no-one was injured.

Police said they were searching for the perpetrator, but had no information on a motive.

Andreas Sagehorn, President of the Oldenburg Police Directorate, condemned the attack “in the strongest possible terms”.

“The police will do everything in their power to clarify the background to this cowardly act and to identify the perpetrators,” he said in a statement. “We will take this attack as an opportunity to immediately increase the security measures at the Oldenburg synagogue until the circumstances of the offence have been clarified.”

Like many other countries, Germany saw a large increase in anti-Jewish incidents following Hamas’ attack on Israel in October, and Israel’s subsequent attacks in Gaza.

However, there have been a number of antisemitic incidents and attacks launched by German far-right groups in recent years.