Polish officials condemn arson attack on Warsaw synagogue

Polish authorities on Wednesday condemned an arson attack against a Warsaw synagogue.

Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, quoting the country's chief rabbi, said "someone tried to set fire to the Nozyk synagogue with a molotov cocktail".

"Thank God no-one was hurt," the minister added in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

An AFP journalist at the scene saw a black stain across a window that appeared to have been caused by flames, but there was no major damage to the synagogue.

"I condemn this shameful attack on the Nozyk synagogue in Warsaw," Polish President Andrzej Duda wrote on X. "Anti-Semitism has no place in Poland. There is no place for hate in Poland."

Poland's chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, could not be immediately contacted. Warsaw police said they had investigators at the scene.

Sikorski's message questioned who would have carried out the attack on the 20th anniversary of Poland's membership of the European Union.

"Maybe the same ones who scrawled the Stars of David in Paris?" he said.

French prosecutors started an investigation after several dozen Jewish symbols were daubed on buildings in Paris in October as tensions increased with Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.

France believes that Russian security services were behind the vandalism, an official French source said, but Russia has denied any involvement.