An east London store known as “Britain’s largest anarchist bookshop” has been badly damaged in a suspected firebomb attack.

The fire took place last night at the Freedom Press bookshop in Whitechapel, which stocks thousands of books, newspapers and pamphlets, as well as publications by anarchist and radical groups.

A tweet by Freedom Press today said that no-one was hurt in the incident and added: “Upstairs is okay but shop and electrics have been seriously damaged.

“Not much to be done today, but plan for clean-up and appeal for cash (no insurance coverage sadly) will be getting sorted out asap.”

A ‘solidarity clean up’ is planned for 1pm tomorrow at the shop, which also stocks political t-shirts, badges, CDs and posters.

The bookshop is run by Freedom Press, the largest anarchist bookshop in the country, founded in 1886 by a group of friends who were already publishing a newspaper.

In a later tweet, Freedom Press said: “Not sure yet whether archives survived - we had one of only a few sets covering almost the entire printed history of the paper boxed in shop.”

Police confirmed officers attended but no further details were immediately available.