BRISBANE, Australia — A frightening terrorist hate crime unfolded at Brisbane’s largest synagogue when a driver deliberately rammed a truck into the security gates as hundreds of members gathered for Shabbat prayers.

Authorities said a 32 year old Sunnybank man drove directly at the entrance in what investigators are treating as an antisemitic attack. Surveillance footage shows the vehicle reversing before accelerating again in an apparent attempt to breach the secured perimeter.

The impact caused significant damage to the front gates. Reinforced bollards prevented the gate from collapsing inward, potentially stopping it from falling directly onto a synagogue member who was nearby at the time.

It remains unclear what might have happened had the protective bollards not been installed. With hundreds of worshippers inside praying, officials acknowledged the outcome could have been far worse.

The suspect fled but was later stopped after police deployed tyre spikes near the Queensland Holocaust Museum in Brisbane. He was taken into custody and charged with hate related offenses.

The attack came one day after Islamists firebombed another synagogue in Australia and ABC News somehow referred to the firebombed synagogue as a “mosque,” intensifying alarm within the country’s Jewish community.

It also follows the deadly Chanukah shooting near Bondi Beach in Sydney, where six people were killed in what authorities described as an Islamist terror attack carried out by a father and son team. While that incident was not at a Jewish institution, it heightened fears about extremist violence and public safety nationwide.

For many Australian Jews, the violence carries a painful historical weight. Australia was long viewed as a safe haven for Holocaust survivors and their descendants, a country far removed from the antisemitic terror that scarred Europe.

Now, some community members say they are second guessing that sense of security and even contemplating whether their future remains in Australia.

Jewish leaders are calling for urgent security reinforcements and stronger enforcement against hate crimes, warning that repeated attacks on synagogues are not only acts of vandalism but direct threats to Jewish life in a country once considered among the safest in the world.