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RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

A sus­pect­ed ar­son at­tack on the Sa­cred Choice of Heav­en Mt Lebanon Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist Church in Clax­ton Bay has left mem­bers of the con­gre­ga­tion shak­en but res­olute af­ter quick ac­tion by fire­fight­ers pre­vent­ed ma­jor dam­age on Fri­day night.

The 81-year-old church, lo­cat­ed in Spring­vale, had been se­cured ear­li­er in the week. Around 10 pm, a church dea­con re­ceived a call re­port­ing flames in­side the prayer area. The blaze was swift­ly ex­tin­guished, and sev­er­al plas­tic bot­tles con­tain­ing gaso­line were lat­er dis­cov­ered in­side the build­ing, rais­ing strong sus­pi­cions of ar­son.