The Simcha School in Kiev, Ukraine, caught fire Wednesday evening in what officials suspected was an act of arson committed by anti-Semites.

Firefighters had the last of the flames put out by 5 p.m., according to Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Mordechai Levenhartz, principal of the school, which recently celebrated its 15th anniversary.

"There is a lot of damage," he said. "The entranceway was burnt, as well as other equipment, but thankfully the classrooms appear to have emerged unscathed."

Still, he said, the school's 600 students from kindergarten through post high school would not be able to return to class until the building airs out and authorities are better able to assess the situation.

Levenhartz said that he was sure the blaze was the work of anti-Semites.

"There is a group that sits near the school that use drugs," he related. "From time to time, they do physical damage to the school, including graffiti.

"After the fire started, people saw teenagers running away."

Police in the Ukrainian capital are investigating.

If Levenhartz's suspicions prove correct, the fire would be the latest anti-Semitic incident to strike Ukraine. Over the past several months, Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries and institutions in the country have come under attack.