Officers from the Policía Nacional in the city of Granada managed to catch a man, red-handed,setting light to rubbish hoppers on Friday.

A police patrol was doing its rounds when they came across rubbish hoppers being set alight in the early hours of yesterday on the Camino de Ronda. The 28-year-old suspect saw the police approaching and ran out from behind the hoppers and tried to scarper.

One of the officers managed to prevent fires in two hoppers from taking hold, but the third hopper required the fire service to deal with.

With one of the officers giving chase on foot the other, once he had dealt with the hoppers jumped back into the car to report the incident. During the chase the suspect was seen to ditch something, which turned out to be a cigarette lighter.

In the meantime the fire service had turned up and put out the remaining burning hopper, which was one destined for paper and cardboard, hence its prompt combustion.

The detained man confessed to having set light to the hoppers and offered to pay for the damage caused, some 2,000 euros.

(News: City & Metropolitan Area, Granada, Andalucia)