A gay bar in Puerto Rico has been hit in a shocking arson attack.
Emergency services were called to Circo Bar, a popular gay nightclub in San Juan, Puerto Rico, after the attack on Sunday.
According to reports from local newspaper El Vocero, several Molotov cocktails were thrown into the club at around 7:30 PM on Sunday, sparking a fire.
Luckily it does not appear that anyone was injured in the attack, and as the fire was quickly extinguished the damage was not extensive.
The motive of the attack is not known, and there have been no arrests.
Witnesses apparently saw “several individuals dressed in black” carry out the attack.
Pedro Julio Serrano, of Puerto Rican LGBT group Puerto Rico Para Tod@s, has urged police to probe the attack as a hate crime.
The activist said: “We must investigate if there is a hate crime. They threw incendiary devices at a gay club in Santurce.”
There is a thriving gay community in Puerto Rico, which legalised same-sex marriage in 2015 following the US Supreme Court ruling.
The attack on the bar comes as Puerto Rico continues to struggle to recover in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.
More than a million people were left without power when the hurricane ravaged the US territory, and work has been slow to rebuild infrastructure.
The blackout is now the longest in American history, with power restored to just 26% of homes to date.
Local politicians have been critical of federal involvement in the recovery and rebuilding.
Donald Trump notoriously picked a fight with the Mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulín Cruz, in the wake of the hurricane.
by Nick Duffy
Source – PinkNews
