Bangalore, Oct. 13: Flames leapt out of a church here early today, raising suspicion it had been attacked as police came under fire for trying to pass off the blaze as an accident.

Church representatives in Karnataka denounced the attempts to register a case of accidental fire at St Anthony’s Church in Attibele, 22km away on Hosur Road. Religious books, furniture and statues were burnt.

The incident is the latest in the series of church raids since the September 14 attacks in Mangalore and later in Chikmagalur and Bangalore, provoking the Centre to issue two notices to the BJP government under Article 355 for failing to protect minorities. A two-member Union home ministry team had also visited the vandalised churches recently.

According to the police, two constables guarding St Anthony’s Church spotted the flames billowing out around 2 this morning and called the fire services. The blaze was put out in around 20 minutes but word about the incident soon spread to other parts of the city.

The police initially claimed the fire was ignited by a short circuit but couldn’t establish their case before a team of representatives from the archbishop later in the day.

The bishop’s public relations officer, Father Adolf Washington, said the police agreed to investigate only after senior officers arrived.

“We saw religious texts, furniture and statues burnt only in the corners of the hall, giving rise to suspicion that it (the fire) was a deliberate act.” Washington questioned the short-circuit claim, arguing if that had been the case, the wires would have been burnt.

“The lights and fans were working. We have no doubt it was another attack.” Church officials said the culprits might have slipped in through a side door kept unlocked for the constables to take shelter if it rained.