The central mosque of the medieval city of Borås, Sweden, has cancelled all activity until further notice after their building burnt down overnight, despite efforts by the emergency services to save it.

Police were first on the scene with fire extinguishers when the fire was reported at three o’clock this morning, but they were ineffective. Although early reports suggested the fire had been quickly put out, it was still burning hours later — and fire crews even had to demolish one of the mosque walls in order to spray water onto the fire inside.

Police are treating the incident at the converted industrial unit as a potential arson, and are investigating how the fire was started, reports Göteborgs-Posten. An emergency services spokesman said: “We were met by flames. It was a full fire broken out”. A mosque spokesman took to Facebook to inform followers: “The venue can not be used. All daily activities are canceled until further notice”.

The mosque has been fundraising to construct a new, purpose-built mosque in the city centre since 2012.

Today’s mosque fire in Borås, a regional capital in southern Sweden’s rural hinterland follows a spate of similar attacks on mosques and migrant centres across Europe.

There was a spate of deliberately set fires at Swedish mosques in 2014, and Breitbart London has reported at length on the emerging trend for attacking mosques across Europe as tensions stoked by the migration crisis and Islamist terrorist attacks has intensified. Two teenagers were arrested last year after an arson attack on a mosque in south London, described as western Europe’s largest caused extensive damage.

In addition to mosque fires, there have been hundreds of asylum shelter fires set in Europe, with almost 200 recorded in Germany in 2015 alone. While some of the fires have been caused by anti-migration activists and disgruntled locals destroying properties in the process of being converted to migrant accommodation before the inhabitants arrive, a great deal have been caused by migrants themselves.

Today’s fire in Borås is not the only time recently the small city of just 66,000 people has been in the news. Just last week the city made headlines after an apartment block was set alight, but the fire brigade found themselves unable to douse the flames. The weather in Sweden has recently turned so cold the water carried by the fire engine had frozen solid by the time it reached the blaze.

A double shooting in the same neighbourhood last year excited interest on social media because of a rumoured link to the town’s growing immigrant community. Two men were discovered injured by officers after residents heard gunfire and witnessed another two men escaping on a moped, reported Aftonbladet. Attempts by Breitbart London to ascertain the details of the case went unanswered by Swedish police.