Two arrests for arson at refugee shelter in Deurne

Two men were arrested for allegedly setting fire to a sports hall in Deurne, Noord-Brabant last August. Two passers-by then intervened and managed to prevent the building from going up in flames. The two suspects are a 43-year-old man from Deurne and a 38-year-old man from Helmond.

A few days before the arson attack, the municipality of Deurne had announced that the sports hall would be used as a crisis shelter for 225 people seeking asylum in the Netherlands. The police are investigating whether the facility’s use as a shelter was also the motive for setting the building on fire.

The suspects were arrested on Thursday and had not yet been interrogated, a spokesperson for the police said the following afternoon. The police tracked them down “through detective work, including neighborhood investigations and viewing camera images,” she said.

The arson happened during the early morning hours of August 13. Shortly afterwards, a man and a woman walking by the entrance saw a bottle with flames coming out of it. The man “kicked this bottle aside and this prevented the flames from spreading to the building,” said the police.

At the end of November, a fire was also set at a campsite and farm in Someren, not far from Deurne. About 450 asylum seekers were supposed to be received there a few days later. It is not yet known whether the two suspects are also being investigated for that.