Holylands Hell: arsonists wreck Freshers Week in torching spree

Vandals marred Freshers Week as they burned eight cars on Holylands streets in just four days.

Pyromaniacs set cars ablaze on Damascus Street, Collingwood Avenue and Cadogan Street in the early hours of Saturday morning and throughout Sunday.

But Delhi Street bore the brunt of the attacks – one car was set alight on Monday morning and a further two in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Steve Fox, a second year Law student at UUJ, dialled 999 after vandals burned a black BMW on Collingwood Avernue on Saturday night.

He told The Tab: “I was home early from Culture Night in the city, and had just gone to bed when I heard an alarm going off. When I looked outside I didn’t know if it was real or some sort of joke.

“I rang 999 straight away and within minutes police and firemen arrived. Not many other people seemed to be in their houses as all the other students had gone home for the weekend.”

Steve and his friends captured the aftermath in a series of Snapchat videos.

Conor Bradley and Meabh McElduff who also live in the area, said they saw “a lad in a hoodie fiddling underneath the car ten minutes before it went on fire”, but assumed it was the owner of the car fixing something.

And police say the fire was part of a pattern of identical incidents.

PSNI told The Tab other vehicles were set on fire around the same time each night over the weekend of the 19th-21st September.

Nicole another Holylands resident was devastated when she woke up to find her yellow Mini Cooper torched by vandals.

The terrified teaching student at St Mary’s said: “I’ve moved back over to my mummy’s, no chance I was staying over their after that happening. It happened between twenty to three and ten to three on Sunday morning”.

Det Insp Peter Mullan said there was “nothing to suggest” one person was responsible for the attacks, but hit out at those responsible, calling it a “needless act and a waste of resources.” A total of eight cars have now been damaged in this spate of violence.

The PSNI have now deployed officers with special video cameras in a bid to thwart further crimes.

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