Metro

WATCH: Man caught on tape firebombing Qns. Hindu temple, Islamic center

BOMB THROWER: An attacker, pictured in a police sketch at right, throws a Molotov cocktail Sunday night at a Queens house that serves as a Hindu temple. (
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The fire fiend wanted for a series of terrifying Molotov-cocktail attacks on New Year’s Day had earlier threatened workers at a Queens bodega that was among his targets, The Post has learned.

“You’re gonna get it!” he shouted to workers at the 179th Street Deli in Hillside after he was caught trying to steal milk and a bottle of Starbucks Frappucino on Tuesday.

All the bombs were made with Frappucino bottles.

Cops believe the arsonist tossed a firebomb into the deli’s kitchen Sunday night as part of a possibly bias-related rampage that also included an Islamic center and a Hindu temple inside a private residence.

Another Jamaica home was badly damaged, and cops are investigating whether a fifth site. a home in Elmont, LI, just over the Queens border, was part of the spree.

No one was hurt.

The NYPD released dramatic security video from the Hindu temple showing the firebug tossing a lit Molotov cocktail over the iron fence.

Officials also released a sketch of the suspect, a black man 25 to 30 years old, about 5-foot-8 and weighing 200 pounds. He wore a black jacket and a baseball cap.

A reward of $12,000 has been offered.

At the 179th Street deli, cashier Ahmed Abdulla said that the shoplifting incident wasn’t reported to police but that the man returned to make good on his threat Sunday evening.

“He came . . . and got a bottle of gas and threw it through the kitchen,” said Abdulla.

After that, he struck the Jamaica home and then the Imam Al-Khoei Islamic Center on Van Wyck Expressway — where he tossed two firebombs. About 75 worshipers were inside at the time.

At the home in Elmont, owner Bejai Rai, 77, said he and his wife were awakened by a crash in the living room at 9:40 p.m. Luckily, the firebomb didn’t make it inside.

“We couldn’t sleep all night. Somebody tried to kill us,” he said. “Somebody tried to set the house on fire.”

The bottle bombs aimed at the Elmont home and the Hindu temple did not break. Cops recovered them intact, filled with a flammable liquid, possibly gasoline, with wicks made of toilet paper.