British counterterrorism police said Tuesday they had arrested eight people in an investigation into a series of suspected arson attacks in London, including an alleged plot targeting a venue linked to the Jewish community.
Seven of the arrests were made in the past 48 hours as part of a probe into a suspected conspiracy to commit arson, police said.
Authorities did not identify a specific venue but said an intended target was connected to the Jewish community.
The arrests come as British police investigate a string of attacks on Jewish-linked sites in the capital, part of a wider rise in threats and criminal activity since the start of the Israel-Gaza war in October 2023.
UK security officials have warned that Iran has sought to use criminal proxies to carry out hostile activity in the country, and the pro-Iranian group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya has claimed some of the latest attacks on social media.
Police did not link the group to the latest arrests.
In the latest operations, detectives arrested three men, ages 24, 25 and 26, in Harpenden, north of London, on Sunday evening before releasing them on bail.
On Monday, a 25-year-old man was arrested in Stevenage, north of London. A 26-year-old man and two women, ages 50 and 59, were arrested in a vehicle near Birmingham and taken to a London police station, where they remained in custody.
On Tuesday morning, officers arrested a 39-year-old man at an address in west London under the Terrorism Act 2000. Police said the arrest was linked to an investigation after jars containing a non-hazardous substance were found in Kensington Gardens in central London last week. Searches continued at a property in east London, police said.
Separately, a 17-year-old boy pleaded guilty Tuesday to arson not endangering life, the BBC reported, following an attack on a synagogue in north London over the weekend. The fire caused minor damage and no injuries.
Since an attack last month on several ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity, counterterrorism police said they have arrested 23 people.