The church which was built in 1939 and situated in the historical area of Dovre in Norway was engulfed in flames.

It started in the early hours of the morning on the 21st of February. The fire caused extensive damage to the interior of the old church.

The church, which has protection status, was recently refurbished and is a building with cultural significance for the local inhabitants of the small village of Dombås which has where 1 212 people live.

Police now suspect that the fire was likely to have been started deliberately.

“We have several different leads that cause reason to suspect arson” said operative research leader Tor Kallmyr at Kripos of the Norwegian police to VG.

Fire services managed to get the fire under control after about 3 hours. The brand new organ worth $378 219 went up in flames.

“It is so sad, so sad. I feel the tears flowing. The church was our gethering point, the house that follow us in sorrow and happines through our lives” said the leader for the church council in Dovre.

The last 20 years, 5 churches have completely burnt down to the ground in Norway.

Since 1990, over half of church fires in Norway have been deliberately set on fire.

There has been an alarming rise of Christian persecution in Europe recently. 2019 saw a whopping 3000 attacks in Europe.

“Roughly 3,000 Christian churches, schools, cemeteries and monuments have been vandalized, looted or defaced in Europe during 2019”.

In 2018, there was 875 churches in France were vandalized.

According to the Christian persecution watch group Open Doors, over 260 million Christians live under sever persecution worldwide.