UK: Indian-origin family's house set ablaze while they were asleep
An Indian-origin family of four in the UK had a lucky escape when their house was targeted in an "unprovoked" arson attack, which the police is treating as a hate crime. Mayur (Mac) Karlekar, his wife Ritu and two young children were asleep in their home late on Saturday night when their house was reportedly set on fire by four to five unidentified youths.
Here's the video of the incident
"My son's bedroom was narrowly saved"
The family was woken up by their neighbors, who had called in the fire brigade to tackle a huge blaze outside their home in South-East London's Borkwood Park area. "Though most of the damage was done to the hedges leaving the house now exposed, but my son's bedroom was narrowly saved," said Karlekar, a digital consultant who moved to UK in late 1990s.
CCTV-images show four-five youths attempting to start fire on hedges
Going further, he expressed relief that it got stopped on time, but "the damage to our neighborhood, our society, to our home has been done, irrecoverably. We have not caused any trouble to anyone." "This act happening to us was a complete shock," said the 43-year-old, a native of Dombivali, who's ensuring no other neighborhood family becomes a victim of a similar hate crime.
Treating this as hate crime, no arrests yet: Cops
Karlekar has expressed his unhappiness with the nearly 32-hour delay in the Metropolitan Police starting their investigation. Cops are "investigating this as a hate crime. It's being dealt with as a arson and criminal damage case. No arrests have been made so far." Meanwhile, CCTV images reportedly showed a group of four-five youths, dressed in hoodies, attempting to start a fire outside Karlekar's home.
