Swedish Mosque Gutted in Suspicious Fire
Firefighters were called to the mosque in the Vivalla area of Orebro shortly after 2am on Tuesday. Five hours later they were still battling the flames, which threatened to consume large parts of the building.
"The situation right now is that parts of the building are still burning and we are hopeful that we will be able to save other parts of the building," fire and rescue officer Ulf Jacobsen told the TT newswire at 6.30am.
One part of the building is described as completely destroyed, and the roof has caved in. In another part there are smoke and water damages, while a third part appears to have escaped the worst of the fire.
"We're still having problems in the middle part," said Jacobsen.
There are no reports of injuries.
Police are investigating the blaze as arson, which tends to be standard procedure when it is not immediately obvious how the fire started.
Orebro Mosque moved to the building, which was previously used by Jehovah's Witnesses, in 2007. It welcomes more than 5,000 visitors a month of around 25 different nationalities, according to its website.
The Sunni mosque was attacked in 2014, when someone threw a bottle with flammable contents through a window. However, a fire did not break out as a result.
Source: thelocal.se
