Victoria police have named a man they want to interview in relation to a suspected arson attack on a car sporting a “Happy Chanukah” sign in Melbourne on Christmas Day.
Police said emergency services were called to a vehicle displaying a mobile billboard that had been set alight in the driveway of a property in St Kilda East about 2.50am on Thursday.
On Friday they named 47-year-old John Argento as “a person who may be able to assist with their investigation”.
Victoria police said Argento was known to police and had an outstanding arrest warrant relating to other matters.
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“Detectives believe Argento lives a transient lifestyle. He is known to frequent Melbourne’s inner southern and northern suburbs,” the statement said.
“Detectives are treating this arson as a targeted attack but there is no indication that Argento poses as a specific risk to the Jewish community.”
No one was inside the car at the time of the incident but the occupants of the house were evacuated as a precaution, police said.
The Victoria police assistant commissioner for the southern metro region, Chris Gilbert, said at this stage he did not believe there was a broader threat to the Jewish community.
“We understand the devastating impact this type of [alleged] offence has on our Jewish community and we are continuing to prioritise this investigation,” he said.
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, said on Thursday she had been briefed by police on the St Kilda incident.
“This is not what any family, street or community deserves to wake up to on Christmas Day in Australia,” she said on X.
“We have a duty to this community: to ensure their families are safe and feel safe right now, and to work long-term in a serious effort to drive anti-Semitism and hate out of our state.”
The incident comes less than two weeks after 15 people were killed in a mass shooting that targeted Jews celebrating the holiday of Hanukah at Sydney’s Bondi beach.