According to our colleagues at the Metro, a 22-year-old resident of Marseillan was arrested on Friday morning, within minutes of several fires being started in the Mont Saint-Loup forest and the adjoining Maraval estate, on the road to Sète, in Agde. These wildfires were quickly brought under control by firefighters from SDIS 34.
As soon as the alert was raised, the Agde municipal police deployed patrols, including officers from the motorcycle squad, who quickly secured the area, which had already been affected by previous suspicious forest fires on Mont Saint-Loup over the past few days. The municipal police also gathered witness statements which led them to the young suspect.
This rapid response proved effective, as the suspected arsonist was located and arrested at around 8.45 am. He was handed over to officers from the Agde police station’s public security unit, who are leading the investigation into these repeated fires in the same wooded area.