Vandals have in recent weeks torched a Sydney childcare centre, set cars ablaze in largely Jewish neighbourhoods and splashed inner-city synagogues with red paint and graffiti.

Masked arsonists firebombed a synagogue in the city of Melbourne in December.

Albanese said some of these attacks appeared to have been carried out by “paid actors”.

“Some of these are being perpetrated by people who don’t have a particular issue, aren’t motivated by an idealogy, but are paid actors,” he said.

“It’s unclear who or where the payments are coming from.”

Australian federal police commissioner Reece Kershaw said detectives were investigating whether cash to fund these attacks had flowed from “overseas”.

“We are looking into whether overseas actors or individuals have paid local criminals in Australia to carry out some of these crimes in our suburbs.”

Neither Albanese nor police offered any details about what evidence authorities may have collected, which foreign actors were under suspicion, or why they were supposedly involved.

Police on Wednesday charged a 33-year-old man with attempting to light a Sydney synagogue on fire.

Eight people were charged on Tuesday with a string of “hate crime-related incidents” dating back to November, police said.