Arson to Wooden Chapel in Lithuania
A suspect has been caught on CCTV cameras after a wooden chapel in the Prienai district was set on fire on the 20th November. The chapel was in the churchyard of the Skriaudžiai church. Firefighters could not save the wooden building. Fr. Antanas Mickevičius, parish priest of St. Laurynas parish in Skriaudžiai, suspected that the fire was caused by arson: "There was no electricity, fireplace or candles [in the chapel], nothing like that. It could only be arson" quoted Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT). After investigating, the firefighters believed that the building may have been set on fire after being doused with a flammable liquid.
Newspapers reported that the suspect was caught on CCTV cameras.
The church of St. Antanas Mickevičius had been open for only six months. The parish priest of St. Laurynas parish expressed his shock after the fire: "For me, just coming from Father's Day, it is both embarrassing, sensitive and painful. It was after 7 p.m., I was looking through the blinds and the sun was burning red, and it couldn't be like that, and I opened the blinds - the fire brigade had already arrived, the fire hoses were already stretched," said Mr Mickevičius.
The perpetrator was seen by the CCTV cameras as he arrives at the chapel before 7 am, lingers there for a while, and then leaves the scene of the crime by climbing over the fence. After a while, smoke starts billowing out of the chapel, and there is a flash of fire.
Source: lrt.lt; kauno.diena.lt, TV3, Lyrtas
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