The Policía Nacional carried out a raid towards the end of last month in the north of Motril where dozens of illegal, gas hook-ups were discovered.

After inspecting 140 flats in the Huerta Carrasco y San Antonio areas, the police detected a total of 24 illegal hook-ups.

To be able to mount such an operation officers from the Policia Nacional in Madrid and Granada were brought in.

Despite these being conflictive areas of Motril during the four hours that the search was carried out there were no disturbances or arrests.

According to the police the modus operandi for hooking up to the gas supply was gain access to the mains gas pipe via the manhole/inspection points, puncture it and then place concrete around the new joint to seal it and prevent a gas leakage.

The police inspected each one of the manholes in search of such connections.

What surprised the officers most was the reckless tampering with gas pipes, given the proximity of housing and even school – had an explosion occurred, damage to property and injury to people could have been considerable.

(New: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)