A man doused the front doors of a downtown Melbourne synagogue and set them alight Friday night, Australian police said Saturday.

An arsonist has set fire to the door of a Melbourne synagogue and forced the congregation to flee, seven months after criminals destroyed a synagogue in the same Australian city with an accelerant-fueled blaze that left a worshipper injured.

Police say around 20 people were inside the synagogue in the downtown area of east Melbourne when a man poured flammable liquid on the front door and set it on fire.