French police have arrested 26 suspected arsonists since July

MADRID, 17 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) -

French security forces have arrested 26 people on suspicion of setting fires since mid-July, which has already resulted in at least four convictions and six preventive detention orders, according to Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.

The minister has recognized the "criminal origin" of some of the fires unleashed in France this summer, for which he has defended the need to prosecute activities that, voluntarily or accidentally, result in the start of fires.

Interior has mobilized more than 500 police and gendarmes to try to find the arsonists. Only in the Gironde, one of the areas most affected by the last wave of fires, the Prosecutor's Office has opened some thirty investigations to determine the origin of the multiple fires.

Darmanin recalled during a visit to the department of Jure, precisely one of those affected by the flames, that the prison sentences for arsonists can be between ten and 30 years in the event that someone who is a victim of the flames dies, according to the BFMTV network.

France has already lost more than 62,000 hectares this year, according to European reports that prove an unprecedented summer throughout the continent, as is also evidenced by the fires that are still active in countries such as Spain and Portugal.