Over the past five nights, a recycling container, garbage bags and a car have burned on the island in western Stockholm. On Monday night, a villa was completely destroyed.
"We see that there has been an escalation in the severity of the fires, but I cannot comment further on the individual cases," says Jonas Englund, deputy local police chief.
"We have an increased police presence. We are on site 24/7, patrolling and working to create security," he continues.
The villa was unoccupied at the time and there were no injuries.
The police are investigating the house fire as arson. It is still unclear how it started. On Tuesday morning, the fire was still burning at the scene and the police have not yet been able to begin a crime-scene investigation.
There are a number of witness observations that the police are working with, but Englund does not want to say more than that about the investigation.
Among the island's more than 4,400 inhabitants, many are worried, and in Facebook groups there is speculation that an arsonist is wreaking havoc in the area.
"It's not something I can or want to go into. We are working without prejudice and looking at the five incidents to see if we can find any connection. We cannot rule out that there are one or more perpetrators," says Jonas Englund.
