The doors of two churches within about a mile of each other in east London were almost destroyed in a series of arson attacks with an apparently satanic motive.

In the space of two days, attackers lit fires outside the doors of four churches near Stratford, including one where a children’s playgroup was taking place in the church hall.

At each church, apparently occult symbols and messages including pentagrams, spirals, the number 666 and the word “hell” were etched into the doors.

“We thought someone’s got it against the church or our church, or Christianity or religion,” said John Edney, the secretary of Cann Hall and Harrow Green Baptist church, where two fires were lit.

Police said they were keeping an open mind about the motive.

The doors of Cann Hall and Harrow Green Baptist Church near Stratford, one of four churches attacked by arsonists in just 36 hours this week. Attackers drew occult symbols on the doors of each church they attacked. pic.twitter.com/qwDGwI2CdE — Damien Gayle (@damiengayle) June 21, 2019

The series of attacks began on Tuesday night at St John’s on Stratford Broadway, which had already been vandalised recently when doors were scratched and posters outside were torn down. A small fire lit outside a door there overnight had been extinguished by the time police attended the scene on Wednesday morning.

Less than half an hour later police were called to Cann Hall church, about a mile and a half away in Leytonstone. One woman had smelled smoke and found a small fire, apparently fuelled by rubbish from a nearby wheelie bin, burning just outside the church hall door. The door had been etched with a pentagram, and church officials discovered the word “hell” etched on the main door to the chapel.

Another small fire was started on Wednesday night at the Church of Jesus Christ Apostolic on Ramsay Road, five minutes’ walk from Cann Hall Road. Less than an hour later, police and firefighters rushed back to Cann Hall church where a fire had taken hold on the main doors, scorching all of one side as flames reached the stone mantle.

Just after midnight on Thursday a fourth church was attacked. Police and firefighters went to St Matthews on Dyson Street in Stratford, where the fire had become intense enough to destroy the doors.

The Rev Christy Asinugo, the vicar of St Matthews, told the Newham Recorder: “I thought the first one was just a one-off, it didn’t bother me so much, but after this I’m really bothered now. It’s my fear [that they might try again], because we don’t know what is on the mind of this person.”

Marco Visconti, a book trader and expert in the occult, said it was unlikely that any genuine occultists would have used such symbolism in these kinds of circumstances. “Especially in this country, the satanic panic of the 1980s is still very much felt,” he said. “Anybody who is really invested in these kinds of symbols wouldn’t make it public.

“Honestly, it seems to me just some kids who want to fuck things up or criminals who just want the media to go that way.”