Sinn Féin Councillor Cara McShane has urged anyone with information to bring it forward to the police following a report of a fire on Thursday morning (6 April) at a property in Ballycastle.
Cllr McShane said:
“Police have started an investigation into a fire at a property in the Leyland Drive area of Ballycastle in the early hours of this morning.
“Attacks like this could end in death or serious injury and it could have been a very serious incident but thankfully there was no one inside the property.
“The fire crew who attended the incident were able to evacuate residents from adjoining propertiesas a precaution and bring the fire under control.
“I would appeal for anyone with information to come forward."
Commeting on the incident and appealing for witnesses on Thursday, a spokesperson for the Police Service of Northern Ireland said:
“At around 2.25am, officers received and responded to a report of a fire at a flat in the Leyland Drive area of the town.
“Colleagues from the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service also attended the scene, and extinguished the blaze, which resulted in substantial damage to a number of rooms in the property.
“Fortunately, there was no one inside the flat at the time of the incident, however, a number of residents from adjoining properties had to be evacuated as a precaution.
“They were later allowed to return to their homes.
“Smoke and water damage was also caused to several of the adjoining properties.”
The police spokesperson continued:
“Our enquiries to establish the circumstances of this incident, which we are treating as arson to endanger life, are continuing, and I would ask that anyone who was in the area at the time and saw anything, or who may have dashcam or other footage, to contact police on 101 quoting reference number 109 of 06/04/23.”