As a group of roughly 50 congregants attended a worship service at a church in Seattle’s Rainer Valley Thursday night, someone hurled several alleged Molotov cocktails at the church. Seattle police spokesman Detective Patrick Michaud said that a 911 caller reported witnessing someone throwing a bottle full of liquid at the church around 8 p.m.
The incendiary devices caused a small fire and damage to the exterior of the Iglesia ni Cristo Locale of Seattle, a Church of Christ, but did not start a fire inside the church. Some vehicles near the church might have been damaged,
Seattle Police Arson and Bomb Squad detectives are investigating with the aid of witnesses who may have seen the suspect.
There were reports that church members had recently confronted a group of men outside the church a few days before the incident.
Iglesia Ni Cristo is the third largest faith in the Philippines after Catholicism and Islam.