Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor:  Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report

AsiaWire

This footage shows how an entire mountain in China has been turned into a raging inferno and where police already struggling with tackling the COVID-19 virus have arrested a pensioner for arson.

Images from the town of Zhanggu in Danba County, which is in south-western China’s Sichuan Province, initially show smoke rising from the grassy mountain slope when the then small fire was first reported at 1:40pm local time on 16th February.

But as the footage showed it later escalated into a blaze which engulfed the entire mountainside.

Videos taken by nearby residents show large flames raging and being fuelled by the dry grass, with thick plumes of smoke also visible.

The authorities reportedly brought the fire under control several hours later, but the extent of the damage caused by the disaster has yet to be estimated.

The Danba County Public Security Bureau said it had arrested a suspect surnamed Wang in the aftermath of the incident, which is being investigated as arson.

Mr Wang, 63, is a local resident, but his motives are at present unclear. The authorities also did not say how Mr Wang started the fire.

Social media users who have already decided the blaze was arson have blasted the suspect for wasting precious police resources at a time of national crisis during the coronavirus outbreak.

‘Mengguo Guotian Jiuguo’ said on Weibo, China’s equivalent to Twitter: “Causing a forest fire at a time like this? Talk about adding fuel to the fire!”

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