Gang admits Iran-linked arson on four Jewish Hatzola ambulances near Golders Green synagogue, causing £1m damage

Saif Ali, 18 — who boasted he had 'done a mad ting' after the attack — organised the getaway car and coordinated the other men in the early hours of 23 March, the Old Bailey heard. Hamza Iqbal, 20, Rehan Khan, 19, Judex Atshatshi, 18, and Ali all pleaded guilty to charges of destroying or damaging property with indifference to whether lives were put at risk. Gas canisters inside the fully equipped ambulances exploded as a result of the fire, which also caused scorch damage to neighbouring flats and the Mchzike Hadath synagogue. When the case reaches sentencing, prosecutors intend to argue that the attack — claimed online by the Iranian-linked group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia — should be classified as an act of terrorism.

A fifth defendant, Subhan Ahmed, 18, of Walthamstow, contests a charge of assisting an offender and is alleged to have attempted to pin responsibility on a gang called the Northumberland Park Killers.

Ali threw his phone from a window when police arrested him; prosecutors say he had searched ambulance prices online in the weeks before the attack.