The two were in court yesterday. | Juan P. Martínez

TW

The two men arrested in connection with a deliberate act of firestarting in Palma on Sunday morning are said to have caused damage valued at 100,000 euros.

As well as the rubbish containers and cars destroyed in a blaze in the S'Escorxador area, the police have attributed other fires to them. The 48 and 51-year-olds are said to have been responsible for at least two other incidents - one in mid-January and the other in late February.

Searches of their homes uncovered cans of solvent. Security camera images that were available to the police following the fire on Sunday morning show one of the two using a burning rag to set fire to containers.

The police suspect that they could have been responsible for a significant number of the some 150 acts of firestarting since early 2018. However, the police now believe various people have been behind these and have revised a view that there was one individual acting alone.

The two appeared in court yesterday morning and were remanded in custody. The judge did not offer bail. One of the two declined to make any statement. The other distanced himself from the incident on Sunday, saying that he had no relation to the first man and only knew him because he had asked if he could use a lighter.