A fire occurred in a store parking lot in Riga on Tuesday — a car turned into a pile of metal.
Witnesses believe that a technical malfunction is unlikely to be the cause — shortly before the fire, actions resembling criminal activity were taking place around the car, reports the show Degpunktā (TV3).
Residents of Purvciems witnessed a car fire involving an Opel Zafira in the parking lot of a store on Tuesday. The burning vehicle posed a threat to those nearby for only a short time, as firefighters arrived shortly after and began their work.
Extinguishing the car took several minutes. There were many witnesses observing the fire and the work of the emergency services. However, only a few noticed what was happening around the vehicle shortly before the fire broke out.
“Some random guys… It seemed like their car got stuck. At first, they tried to free it, and then at some point, flames started coming from the inside. I called the services and saw open flames appearing. And then they ran away somewhere,” said Artis and Artur, who witnessed the incident.
According to the young men, those near the car were behaving quite suspiciously. Their initial actions resembled vandalism, which soon, in their opinion, escalated into a crime.
“They were revving the car… The wheel was spinning for about five minutes. They were jumping on the car, trying to push it. At some point, they started kicking the mirrors, broke the windshield. Then they just left the car running… They threw something from the trunk into the cabin, apparently set it on fire, and ran away. It looks like they intentionally set it on fire. They threw some tires and other things from the trunk into the cabin, broke the doors, set it on fire, took bottles of beer, and left,” the witnesses said.
Law enforcement has initiated a criminal process under Article 18 — on crimes against property. The police have not disclosed further information in the interest of the investigation, only that no one has been detained at this time.
