THE Spanish National Police has arrested a man on suspicion of starting four fires in the city of Almería.
The alleged arsonist, a 55-year-old man who is accused of burning the bus of the cycling team Aquablue Sport who were participating in the La Vuelta cycle race, had previously been arrested 51 times by the National Police.
The arrests were made for theft, robbery with violence and arson, as well as last month’s arrest for the burning of a bin. After burning the vehicle, he burned two bins and caused another fire inside another. At the time of his arrest, he was preparing to make another explosion in another bin.
The police intervention began when a call to 091 alerted agents that a bus was burning. Several police patrols appeared and observed how the vehicle burned and firefighters managed to extinguish the fire. They told officials that it had not been an accident.
At 04.15 hours a police patrol intercepted a suspect as he was ready to burn another bin. After realising the police presence, tried to flee to the road, being intercepted and stopped.
At the time of his arrest, 55-year-old suspect had three lighters, one paper soaked in solvent and one litre of fuel on his person.
