A Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) car. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

British police said on Thursday they had arrested three people in ‌connection with an attempted arson attack on the offices of a Persian-language media organization in northwest London, which followed two similar incidents in the British capital.

An ignited container was thrown toward the premises of the parent company of Iran International, Volant Media, on Wednesday evening, ​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 car park.

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

The incident comes a day after police arrested two suspects following an attempted arson attack on a synagogue, ​also in north London.

JEWISH COMMUNITIES AND IRANIAN DIASPORA INCREASINGLY TARGETED, POLICE SAY

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

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.”