An alleged firebug has been arrested after a parliament palace was set ablaze.
The 56-year-old suspect was found after 10 hours of searching.
The unnamed man allegedly started the blaze at around 1.50pm yesterday (17 Sept).
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He is said to have entered the courtyard of the Congress of Deputies at the Palace of Parliament in the Romanian capital Bucharest and went to the souvenir shop.
The shop is situated in the visitors’ area outside of the palace’s security checkpoint.
While there, he reportedly became embroiled in a row with a worker before allegedly taking out a flammable liquid.
The suspect, who comes from Vaslui in north-eastern Romania, is accused of then setting fire to items in the souvenir shop.
The shop worker reportedly suffered a panic attack and required medical assistance after being splattered with the liquid.
The suspect fled the scene and remained at large for 10 hours.
Officials evacuated around 300 people from the parliament building for their safety.
The blaze was extinguished by firefighters with no injuries reported.
There was some material damage.
The Press Office for the Congress of Deputies reported: “The fire took place in the access area for visitors, level S2.
“Firefighters were in the building and intervened immediately, so at that point the outbreak was extinguished.”
The police tracked the suspect’s movements and later found him hiding out in a hotel in Bucharest, as reported by Need To Know.
According to the police, the man said he did not intend to injure anyone, but wanted to “cause damage to a fundamental institution of the Romanian state”.
The statement continued: “Following a preliminary investigation, it was established that, following a spontaneous argument, a man, a visitor, allegedly threw a flammable substance.”
The police said the man could face between two and seven years in prison for “destroying or rendering unusable an asset, committed by arson, explosion or by any other such means, that is likely to endanger other people or assets”.
The investigation continues.
Built in the 1980s under the command of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, the Palace of Parliament is considered one of the world’s biggest administrative buildings.
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