A man charged in connection with two blazes in Dundee city centre has been released without appearing in court, The Courier can reveal.
The 28-year-old was accused of wilful fire-raising at the tenement block in Garland Place last Wednesday night, as well as starting a fire in a block of flats in Union Street the following day.
It had been thought he would appear at Dundee Sheriff Court on Thursday. However, following investigations, he was granted a PF release by the procurator fiscal department and no further court date has been set.
A spokesman for the Crown Office said: ”The procurator fiscal at Dundee received a report concerning a 28-year-old male in connection with alleged incidents on April 25 and 26.
”After full and careful consideration of the facts and circumstances of the case by the procurator fiscal, the accused was liberated pending further investigation and did not appear in court.”
He stressed that proceedings are still active and could follow one of various routes, including the possibility that the man could still appear in court if sufficient evidence emerges.
A huge joint investigation was launched into both fires after flames ripped through the five-storey block in Garland Place late last Wednesday night.
Firefighters battled into the early hours of Thursday morning and crews from Perth and Fife were summoned to help teams from across the city bring the inferno under control.
Fifteen residents had to be rescued out of their windows, two people were taken to hospital and one firefighter suffered a shoulder injury.
As engineers took their first steps inside the Garland Place tenement early on Thursday, firefighters were alerted to the blaze in the ground-floor close at 40 Union Street later in the afternoon.
Residents in six flats were trapped in their homes in the tenement block between Kenneth Walker the jeweller and the Star & Garter pub.
No one was injured in the incident, which ended around 4.30pm.