Police are hunting an arsonist who set fire to a Melbourne synagogue with more than a dozen people, including children, inside.

The unknown man entered the grounds of the synagogue on Albert Street in East Melbourne at 8pm yesterday.

He poured flammable liquid on the front door of the religious building and set it alight before fleeing, Victoria Police said.

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There were 20 people, including children, having a Shabbat dinner inside the synagogue at the time, however everyone was able to evacuate from the back.

Fire crews were able to extinguish the blaze, which was contained to the front entrance.

Victoria Police Commander Zorka Dunstan said the arson was being treated very seriously, but it had not been declared a terrorist attack.

"This was clearly a targeted fire and we will not accept any acts of anti-Semitism or hate-based crime," Dunstan said.

Police have released a CCTV image of a man they wish to speak to in relation to the fire.

He is described as being of Caucasian descent, and aged in his mid-30s. He has a beard and long hair, and was seen wearing dark clothing.

Jenny and Danny were two of the group inside when the fire was started.

"It's beyond belief and I just feel that it's un-Australian," Danny said.

Dr Dvir Abramovich from the Anti-Defamation Commission also spoke out about the incident.

"We don't have to wait for somebody to be killed or injured to take this threat seriously," Abramovich said.

Police said at this stage the man's motive is unclear.

"We are not declaring this a terrorist incident; we will determine the intent of the persons involved to determine if it is terrorism," Dunstan said.

Police investigate two separate incidents

In a separate incident, a group of 20 protestors stormed and trashed an Israeli restaurant on Hardware Street in Melbourne's CBD.

Witnesses say the group was chanting "death to the IDF" before they arrived at the restaurant called Miznon.

Diners were fearful as the group threw food and chairs at windows and knocked over tables. 

One 28-year-old was arrested at the time and has been released, and a further investigation will follow to identify the alleged offenders.

Dunstan said the small group had peeled away from a larger protest in the CBD.

Victoria Police also revealed a third incident took place this morning, but they have not linked the three separate attacks – it is not clear whether the third attack was an anti-Semitic motivated attack.

In the third incident, a group of men entered the premises of a business on Para Road in Greensborough at 4.30am.

Three cars were torched and spray paint was used to vandalise vehicles and a wall of the business, which is known to manufacture parts for military planes.

Police said they have not confirmed an anti-Semitic motive for the attack on the business; however, Dunstan said they alerted the press to the incident because they had "been subject to pro-Palestinian activity" in the last 12 months.

She clarified there were no previous criminal attacks on the building, but rather protest activity surrounding the business. 

"Investigators across all three incidents are liaising with counter terrorism to understand if there are any links," Dunstan said.

"At this stage we are not aware of any links, but we are not discounting it."

Police have not linked the two.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin called the attacks "a severe escalation directed towards our community".

"We urge all sides of politics and all Australians to condemn these deplorable crimes," he said in a statement.

"Those who chant for death are not peace activists.

"Those who would burn houses of prayer with families inside do not seek an end to war.

"Those responsible cannot be reasoned with or appeased.

"They must be confronted with the full force of the law."

Melbourne's Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece called the attack "shocking."

"These are absolutely shocking, unspeakable acts of cowards," Reece told Today.

"I cannot condemn this sort of behaviour in stronger terms… this is a city of peace and tolerance, and we will not stand for this.

"This goes against everything that we stand for."

The Lord Mayor also said the group were sharing a meal when a young boy inside the synagogue alerted everyone to the fire. 

Reece said police are gathering CCTV footage of the area and he is "confident" that they will catch the offender.

"I hope that we throw the absolute book at them… this is racism, this is anti-Semitic racism," he said.

"To target a Jewish place of faith on the Sabbath, there's people inside having a meal, to try to burn it to the ground…is there a more despicable act that you can think of in a busy city?" 

Minister for home affairs Tony Burke said he condemned the attack on the Melbourne synagogue in the "strongest possible terms".

"Australians have a right to feel safe from violence and bigotry," Burke said.

Minister for multicultural affairs Dr Anne Aly joined Burke in the condemnation of attack and said all Australians have a right to safety.

"Acts of anti-Semitism violate those rights and should face the full force of the law," Aly said.

Investigators are working to find a motive for the arson attack.

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The winning tickets were sold in Auckland and on MyLotto to a Waikato player.

Australian actor Julian McMahon, the star of Nip/Tuck, Charmed and the Fantastic Four movies has died of cancer. He was 56.

His wife issued a statement to Deadline confirming his death after a private battle with the disease.

"With an open heart, I wish to share with the world that my beloved husband, Julian McMahon, died peacefully this week after a valiant effort to overcome cancer," Kelly McMahon said.

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Tributes to the actor have started pouring in, with fans and peers reminiscing on their favourite characters played by the McMahon.

"I can hardly believe he is gone, this is just terrible news to wake up to," Nine's entertainment reporter Richard Wilkins told Today. 

"He was a nice fella, we used to cross paths a bit doing the G'day USA things, but he was very much based in LA.

"Julian will be very fondly remembered by all who came in his path. He was a nice guy… he epitomised tall, dark and handsome.

"He'll be very sadly missed today. I can't believe he's gone."

His cancer diagnosis and battle with the disease were not public knowledge. 

McMahon was born in Sydney on July 27, 1968. His father was Billy McMahon, who served as Prime Minister of Australia from 1971 to 1972.

He is best known for his starring role as Dr. Doom in two Fantastic Four Movies as well as his several beloved soap opera characters throughout his career. 

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He got his start in the industry as a model before transitioning to a lead role in the short-lived Aussie daytime soap opera The Power, The Passion. 

McMahon also appeared in the beloved Home and Away before making his feature acting debut as a lead in the 1992 Australian-American film Wet and Wild Summer!

He moved to Hollywood to continue his acting career and picked up another role in a soap before joining the cast of Charmed as a series regular, playing Cole Turner for three seasons.

Kelly Carlson, who starred in Nip/Tuck alongside McMahon said she was "completely shocked."

"He was a good friend and my acting partner… Jules, thank you for a great six, seven years on Nip/Tuck together, we had so much fun, everybody had so much fun.

McMahon's most recent film was The Surfer, with his last public appearance at the North American premiere in Austin, Texas on March 10.

His co-star, Nicolas Cage, also spoke to Deadline, describing McMahon's death as "deeply saddening news".

"I spent six weeks working with Julian, and he was the most talented of actors," Cage said.

"Our scenes together on The Surfer were amongst my favourites I have ever participated in, and Julian is one of my favorite people.

"He was a kind and intelligent man. My love to his family."

McMahon's Fantastic Four co-star Ioan Gruffud wrote on Instagram it was an "honour" to play opposite him.

"Even though we played each other's nemeses, there was always so much lightness and laughter working together," he said.

"Every encounter with him was a joy."

.Fans of the show took to X to pay their respects. 

"Thank you Julian McMahon for bringing Cole Turner to life. Thank you for my favourite childhood memories of watching Charmed," one X user wrote (formerly Twitter).

"I watched a lot of CHARMED when I grew up so I first saw Julian McMahon as Balthazar. What a fun actor. 56 is too young. Rest In Peace," SNL writer Will Landman said. 

"This one hurts loved Julian in so many things. RIP," another fan wrote. 

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McMahon won a Golden Globe nomination for playing the handsome and charming Dr Christian Troy on FX's hit plastic surgery drama Nip/Tuck, which ran for six seasons.

The Australian actor was once married to singer and actor Dannii Minogue. The pair were married from 1994 to 1995 after meeting on the set of Home and Away.

He also had a daughter with his second wife, Baywatch star Brooke Burns, in June 2000, before the pair divorced in 2001.

He married Kelly Paniagua (now Kelly McMahon) in 2014.

Texas parents frantically posted photos of their young daughters on social media with pleas for information as more than 20 campers from an all-girls summer camp were unaccounted for on Friday after floods tore through the state's south-central region overnight.

At least 13 people were dead and dozens missing after months worth of heavy rain fell in a matter of hours on Texas Hill Country, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said.

The flood-prone region is dotted with century-old summer camps that draw thousands of kids annually from across the Lone Star State.

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Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said about 23 girls attending Camp Mystic, a Christian camp along the Guadalupe River in Hunt, Texas, were unaccounted for on Friday afternoon.

Search teams were working to conduct helicopter and boat rescues in the fast-moving floodwaters.

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"I'm asking the people of Texas, do some serious praying this afternoon — on-your-knees kind of praying — that we find these young girls," Patrick said.

Families of campers struggle with uncertainty

Dozens of families shared in local Facebook groups that they received devastating phone calls from safety officials informing them that their daughters had not yet been located among the washed-away camp cabins and downed trees.

Some were waiting to hear if their children could be evacuated by helicopter.

Mother of missing Camp Mystic camper Janie Hunt says she had not yet heard anything about her whereabouts after catastrophic flooding hit Kerr County on Friday.

"We are just praying," Janie's mother told CNN.

Nine-year-old Lainey Landry is also missing from the camp, according to her mother Natalie.

She is "brave and sweet," her mother told CNN.

Nine rescue teams, 14 helicopters and 12 drones were being used in the search, Patrick said.

Camp Mystic said in an email to parents that if they have not been contacted directly, their child is accounted for. Safety officials said there were roughly 750 campers.

At an elementary school in nearby Ingram that was being used as a reunification centre, more than a hundred people milled around a courtyard with hopes of seeing their loved one step out of buses dropping off those who had been evacuated.

One young girl wearing a Camp Mystic T-shirt stood in a puddle in her white socks, sobbing in her mother's arms as she rubbed her hands together and watched the buses arrive.

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Many families hoped to see loved ones who had been at campgrounds and mobile home parks in the area.

Camp Mystic sits on a strip known as "flash flood alley," said Austin Dickson, CEO of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, a charitable endowment that is collecting donations to help non-profits responding to the disaster.

"When it rains, water doesn't soak into the soil," Dickson said. "It rushes down the hill."

Decades prior, floodwaters engulfed a bus of teenage campers from another Christian camp along the Guadalupe River during devastating summer storms in 1987.

A total of 10 campers from Pot O' Gold Christian camp drowned after their bus was unable to evacuate in time from a site near Comfort, 53km east of Hunt.

Leaders at Camp Mystic said they are without power, Wi-Fi and running water, and the highway leading to the camp has washed away.

Two other camps on the river, Camp Waldemar and Camp La Junta, said in Instagram posts that all campers and staff there were safe.

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Flood turns Camp Mystic into a horror story

Chloe Crane, a teacher and former Camp Mystic counsellor, said her heart broke when a fellow teacher shared an email from the camp about the missing girls.

"To be quite honest, I cried because Mystic is such a special place, and I just couldn't imagine the terror that I would feel as a counsellor to experience that for myself and for 15 little girls that I'm taking care of," she said.

"And it's also just sadness, like the camp has been there forever and cabins literally got washed away."

Crane said the camp, which was established in 1926, is a haven for young girls looking to gain confidence and independence.

She recalled happy memories teaching her campers about journalism, making crafts and competing in a camp-wide canoe race at the end of each summer.

Now for many campers and counsellors, their happy place has turned into a horror story, she said.

The camp is split into two neighbouring sites. Cabins housing the youngest campers, who can start attending at age eight, are situated at water level along the banks of the river and were likely the first to flood, Crane said.

Teen campers stay in cabins higher up on the hillside.

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One family survives a terrifying ordeal

Erin Burgess’ home sits directly across from the river in the Bumble Bee Hills neighbourhood, west of Ingram. When she woke up to thunder at 3:30 a.m. Friday morning, “it was raining pretty heavy, but no big deal,” she said.

Just 20 minutes later, Burgess said water was coming in through the walls and rushing through the front and back doors.

She described an agonizing hour clinging to a tree and waiting for the water to recede enough that they were able to walk up the hill to a neighbour's.

“My son and I floated to a tree where we hung onto it, and my boyfriend and my dog floated away. He was lost for a while, but we found them,” she said, becoming emotional.

Of her 19-year-old son, Burgess said: “Thankfully he’s over six feet tall. That’s the only thing that saved me, was hanging on to him.”

A flood watch issued Thursday afternoon estimated isolated amounts up to 17cm of rising water. That shifted to a flood warning for at least 30,000 people overnight.

When asked about the suddenness of the flash flooding, Kelly said “we do not have a warning system” and that “we didn’t know this flood was coming,” even as local reporters pointed to the warnings and pushed him for answers about why more precautions weren’t taken.

“Rest assured, no one knew this kind of flood was coming,” he said. “We have floods all the time. This is the most dangerous river valley in the United States.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the state was providing resources to Hill Country communities dealing with the flooding, including in Kerrville, Ingram and Hunt.

The Texas Hill Country, a scenic and rocky gateway to booming vineyards and vacation rentals, begins west of the state capital and is a popular outdoor summer getaway. Parts of the region are prone to flash flooding.

Ingram Fire Department posted a photo of a statement from Camp Mystic, saying the private Christian summer camp for girls experienced “catastrophic level floods.” Parents with a daughter not accounted for were directly contacted, the camp said.

The Guadalupe’s river gauge at the unincorporated community of Hunt, where the river forks, recorded a 6.7m in just about two hours, according to Bob Fogarty, meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Austin/San Antonio office.

Fogarty said the gauge failed after recording a level of nine metres.

“This is the kind of thing that will catch you unaware,” Fogarty said. “The water’s moving so fast, you’re not going to recognize how bad it is until it’s on top of you.”

Areas east along the Guadalupe River were preparing for their own flooding as the rapid waters rushed downstream from Hunt and Kerrville. In Kendall County, home to the unincorporated community of Comfort, the sheriff’s office sounded the alarm.

“We regret to inform everyone that the flood situation in Comfort is not improving,” the post read. “We have sounded the flood sirens and urge all residents in low-lying areas of town to evacuate immediately.”

New Jersey also sees deaths due to severe weather

Meanwhile, strong thunderstorms were being blamed for at least three deaths in central New Jersey, including two men in Plainfield who died after a tree fell onto a vehicle they were traveling in during the height of a storm there, according to a city Facebook post.

The men were ages 79 and 25, officials said. They were not immediately publicly identified.

“Our hearts are heavy today,” Mayor Adrian O. Mapp said in a statement. “This tragedy is a sobering reminder of the power of nature and the fragility of life.”

The city cancelled its planned July Fourth parade, concert and fireworks show.

Mapp said the “devastating” storms had left “deep scars and widespread damage” in the community of more than 54,000 people and it was a time to “regroup and focus all of our energy on recovery.”

Continuing power outages and downed trees were reported Friday throughout southern New England, where some communities received large amounts of hail. There were reports of cars skidding off the road in north-eastern Connecticut.

The Prime Minister is tipped to 'ruffle feathers' in Washington tonight when he delivers a keynote speech invoking the wartime leadership of John Curtin.

Anthony Albanese is set to spruik Australia's independence in the face of uncertainty over US trade tariffs and our nuclear submarine deal.

The government is dusting off the playbook of the wartime prime minister, 80 years after the passing of the leader who, let down by Britain, "looked to America".

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According to Assistant Minister to the PM, Patrick Gorman, it's "recognising that Australia should stand on our own two feet".

Tonight, the Prime Minister is looking inwards and honouring John Curtin with a speech spruiking Australia's "determination to think and act for ourselves".

"Undoubtedly, Albanese is sending a message to Washington and the Trump administration that Australia is ultimately in control of its own destiny," Professor James Curran of University of Sydney told 9News.

We have seen eight decades of an enduring US friendship and strategic partnership.

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But several months after Donald Trump's inauguration, Anthony Albanese is yet to book a face-to-face with the president.

"I don't believe Mr Albanese has done all he can here to strengthen Australia's position in relation to the United States," Shadow Attorney-General Julian Leeser said.

Curtin and Chifley are two wartime Prime Ministers who re-wrote Australia's foreign policy playbook.

Tonight, the Prime Minister will point out he too has forged new security ties in our region, rebuilt relationships with China and is now looking at a free trade deal with Europe.

"Here we are talking about the opportunity to run a more independent course from Washington," Curran said.

"I'd say this will ruffle feathers of Uncle Sam."

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Civil Defence’s flood safety advice warns people against playing in water.

Police want to speak with anyone who saw the serious crash.

Four women including two teens could face life in jail after being accused of trying to smuggle 30kg of cocaine wrapped vinegar and chilli-soaked towels into Australia.

Australian Federal Police said two 18-year-olds flew who from Hong Kong to Brisbane on Thursday and were stopped by Australian Border Force officers at the airport.

Officers allegedly found 30 bricks of 'spicy drugs' wrapped in the towels in four suitcases.

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It allegedly contained cocaine.

The teens were charged with one count each of importing a commercial quantity of a border-controlled substance.

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Two more women, aged 23 and 21, who police say had given instructions on obtaining passports, airline tickets and accommodation were also arrested.

They were charged with one count each of attempting to possess a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug

All four women appeared before Brisbane Magistrates Court today.

An 18-year-old woman was formally refused bail and will return to the same court on July 17.

The other three women were granted conditional bail and are expected to return to the same court on July 18.

The offences carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

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The 6-month-old infant was discovered critically injured last Sunday.

Alleged thief struck before 1pm and after the robbery fled the scene in a vehicle.