Arsonists using cats with soaked rags tied to their tails to spread Italian wildfires

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Wildfires have ravaged much of the UK and Europe this week, and southern Italy is no exception. But authorities are now investigating whether the flames may have been spread deliberately – and in a rather harrowing way. Investigators believe arsonists sent live cats into the blazes ‘with flammable-soaked rags tied to their tails’. Domenico Costarella, of Calabria’s Civil Protection Agency, said in a video posted to Facebook: ‘These animals were released into the fields, running around and spreading the fire.’ The Italian Association for the Defence of Animals and the Environment has filed a criminal complaint and is offering a €1,000 reward for information about who sent the cats