SYDNEY - Australian police have charged a man in connection with an alleged arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue with worshippers in the building, the latest in a series of incidents targeting the nation's Jewish community.

The 34-year-old allegedly set the front door of a busy Melbourne synagogue ablaze on Friday night as around 20 people ate dinner in observance of Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest.

A man has been charged over an arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue in an apparent escalation in antisemitic violence in Australia’s second-most populous city