A beauty salon in Essendon North has been set alight by arsonists twice in two days.
About 100 residents were again forced to evacuate their multi-storey apartment building after Aura Skin on Keilor Road was rammed by a white four-wheel-drive ute and set alight around 2am on Friday.
Police said the offenders used a liquid to start a fire.
The vehicle rammed the makeshift plywood door that had been installed after Thursday morning’s attack. (ABC News)
Police and firefighters were called to Keilor Road in Essendon North around 2am on Friday. (ABC News)
The salon’s sprinkler system doused the flames, stopping them from spreading through the building, but police said the incident has caused further damage to the business.
The offenders fled in the vehicle.
The ute had been driven through a plywood door that had been installed after the salon was firebombed around 3am on Thursday.
Residents also had to evacuate during that incident.
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One residents told the ABC he saw the vehicle ram the salon three times.
“I went to the balcony and I saw the guy,” he told ABC Radio Melbourne.
Last year, the business — which was operating under a different name — was also set alight after being rammed by a vehicle that had been spray-painted with words demanding a payment.
The resident said he knows of an additional two times the business was targeted.
“We’re really scared, we want to move.”
About 100 residents had to evacuate their Keilor Road apartments in the early hours of the morning for a second day in a row in Essendon North. (ABC News)
A woman who also lives above the salon said she was in shock and tired after the second incident in two days.
“We’re thinking of breaking lease because it’s just been going on basically since I moved here,” she said.
“I’ve been here since the apartment building was established.
“People are just basically over it. No one wants to be woken up at 2, 3am in the morning multiple days in a row for something that doesn’t have anything to do with the people living here.”
She said there were children living in the apartment building and she feared someone would be hurt.
A jerry can left at the scene of the firebombing. (ABC News)
Police are treating both incidents as “targeted, linked attacks”.
A spokesperson said they were being investigated by the Moonee Valley Criminal Investigation Unit, not the organised crime squad.
Aura Skin offers beauty services such as eyebrow waxing and threading, laser hair removal and skin treatments.
Police are urging any witnesses or anyone with information or vision of the incident to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or www.crimestoppers.com.au.