A mosque in Southern California was damaged in a fire that police said was arson.
Flames were reported just after noon Friday at the Islamic Society of Coachella Valley at the 84-600 block of Avenue 49 in Coachella City, according to the Riverside County Fire Department.
The fire was contained to the small building’s front lobby, and no one was injured.
A person of interest has been detained, reports KESQ, but no other details were immediately available.
By late Friday night, the Sheriff’s Department released a statement calling the blaze ‘an intentional act’ and saying it would use all available resources to investigate.
People at the mosque described hearing a ‘loud boom’ and seeing flames, said Reymundo Nour, the mosque’s acting imam, who was not on the site at the time. He said the mosque had been ‘firebombed.’
‘The report that I got was someone threw some type of device at the building and firebombed the place,’ Nour told KPCC. ‘I got a report from people who were inside the mosque saying that they heard a loud boom and that the front area of the mosque erupted in fire, so they quickly called the Fire Department.’
State fire investigators, the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI are assisting in the investigation.
The mosque is about 75 miles from San Bernardino, where last week a couple who federal officials say were inspired by Islamist extremists killed 14 people.
Read More: Authorities: Fire at Southern California Mosque Was Arson
