By Elin Joensson

STOCKHOLM

Police suspect an arson attack in a fire which damaged a Muslim prayer room in Malmo, southern Sweden.

Firefighters from three different fire stations in the city – Sweden’s third-largest – quickly put the fire out Tuesday, and no one was injured. The entire building was smoke damaged.

“Technicians on site have located traces indicating that it’s an arson attack,” Daniel Jonasson, central command at the Malmo police, told tabloid newspaper Kvallsposten.

The building is also home to various community associations.

One local told state media SVT Nyheter Skane that he often comes to the building for his visits to the Iraqi culture association Aldorr.

“We were here last night celebrating Ashura,” the Islamic Day of Remembrance, he said. “I didn’t notice anything strange at the time. I drove past just now and saw that there had been a fire.”

Some 38 percent of Malmo’s population is of a foreign origin, making up 110,000 people in the coastal city.