A horrific arson attack on sailing boats anchored at the Bom Sucesso docks in Belém, Lisbon, has left the young man thought to have started the fire in danger of losing his hands.
Luís Neves is believed to have set alight his father’s €80,000 boat as a result of a family row which also saw him allegedly try to suffocate his elder brother, writes Correio da Manhã.
The blaze, reported to have been started with the use of petrol “a little before midnight” on Tuesday, completely destroyed not only his father’s craft but two others, moored alongside.
All three sank as Neves made his way to a friend’s house in nearby Amadora.
When he knocked on the door his friends were confronted with someone “displaying 60% burns to his body”.
Whatever he had to say was “incoherent” as the friends instantly put him under cold running water in the bathroom and called the fire station.
Neves will not have told authorities what he had done, adds CM, but his friends and the PSP agents called to the scene made the connection “with the news of the fire at the Bom Sucesso docks”.
Neves’ father was contacted, and he confirmed his boat had been anchored at Belém.
The young man was first transported to Santa Maria Hospital and then airlifted by helicopter to Porto’s São José burns unit.
He remains in a “serious condition” and he runs of the risk of losing both hands, says CM
Neves’ brother was treated at the capital’s São Francisco Xavier hospital with “a cut in the area of his ear”, reports the paper, while the fire caused by the blaze caused multiple explosions and was only brought under control around 2am on Wednesday.
