Arsonists use cats with rags tied to tails to spread Italian wildfires | News World

Wildfires have ravaged much of the UK and Europe this week, and southern Italy isn’t any exception.

But authorities are actually investigating whether the flames could have been spread deliberately – and in a fairly harrowing way.

Investigators consider arsonists sent live cats into the blazes ‘with flammable-soaked rags tied to their tails’.

Domenico Costarella, of Calabria’s Civil Protection Agency, said in a video posted to Facebook: ‘These animals were released into the fields, running around and spreading the fireplace.’

The Italian Association for the Defence of Animals and the Environment has filed a criminal criticism and is offering a €1,000 reward for details about who sent the cats into the flames.

Costarella said authorities also found glass bottles fitted with wicks and flammable liquid, which they are saying were used to set off fires in areas covered in dry grass.

It’s not the primary time cats have been used as living ignition devices within the region.

In 2016, Italian police said the mob had used cats to start out fires at a national park near Mount Vesuvius.

This yr, fires have broken out across Italy, including near Rome and Sicily’s capital of Palermo.

Firefighters within the Calabria region alone put out greater than 160 fires in 24 hours, Italian broadcaster RAI said on Wednesday.

Wildfires have broken out across Europe in recent weeks after relentless heatwaves created the right warm, dry conditions for the flames to spread.

Within the UK, Wales has activated ‘crisis management arrangements’ amid concerns there should not enough helicopters to tackle fires.

Although wildfires are still burning within the north and south of the country, the Welsh government said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) had told it there was ‘no aerial support available for anywhere within the UK’.

Meanwhile, an ongoing wildfire in a Derbyshire moorland has scorched greater than 600 hectares because it began a month ago – the equivalent of 900 football pitches.

The blaze, which began at Tintwistle Moor near Glossop, remains to be not extinguished as firefighters aim to administer hotspots and keep flare-ups under control.

Firefighters are expected to proceed working at the positioning into early next week. The nearby A628 will remain closed in each directions between the A57 at Hollingworth and the A616 at Flouch until at the least Monday.

The flames come following three record-breaking heatwaves in May, June and July, which saw the implementation of hosepipe bans and other safety measures.
Some 2,700 excess deaths were attributed to the warmth in England and Wales over the course of the primary two heatwaves.

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