Four teens arrested over London Islamic school fire

FOUR teenagers have been arrested on suspicion of arson in connection with a fire at an Islamic boarding school in Chislehurst, south east London.
Darul Uloom, an Islamic boarding school in Chislehurst, south-east London. Picture: PADarul Uloom, an Islamic boarding school in Chislehurst, south-east London. Picture: PA
Darul Uloom, an Islamic boarding school in Chislehurst, south-east London. Picture: PA

Scotland Yard said the two 17-year-olds and two 18-year-olds were detained late last night and taken to a south London police station, where they remain in custody.

Almost 130 pupils and staff were evacuated from the Darul Uloom Islamic School on Saturday evening with teachers reacting quickly and extinguishing the flames.

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Only minor damage was caused to the school but two boys suffered from smoke inhalation though they were not taken to hospital.

The blaze happened just days after an Islamic centre in London’s Muswell Hill was burnt to the ground amid suggestions it was a racist attack.

The building was daubed with the letters ‘’EDL’’, apparently referencing the English Defence League.

That blaze prompted fears that the fire may have been a reprisal attack in the wake of the Woolwich murder of Drummer Lee Rigby.

Metropolitan Police commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe has said London’s communities were facing “difficult times” and sought to reassure the public by saying police are using their “full range of policing tactics to protect sites that might be vulnerable”.

School principal Mustafa Musa said intruders started the fire in the school teaching area but did not say how the fire was started or if the culprits broke into the building.

London Fire Brigade said the fire was under control in less than an hour after being called.

The £3,000-a-year boarding school was established in 1988 with the purpose of producing “great scholars and Huffaz (people who have memorised the Koran) to preserve and transmit the eternal message of Allah”.

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Its website says: “The institution helps children to explore and develop their Islamic identity as a natural part of their mental, emotional and personal development.”

The school was built in 1974 and comprises 130 boarding rooms in addition to classrooms, dining hall, assembly hall, prayer hall, gym, playing fields and car parking with 100 spaces, over a 10 acre site.

An extension was built in 2007 consisting of 18 classrooms, a science laboratory, a prayer hall and wudhu (ablution) facilities.

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