23 police cars destroyed in fire in Germany

The security services in the southern German state of Bavaria launched an investigation on Saturday after 23 vehicles belonging to the Munich police caught fire during the night in front of a police station, reported dpa.

Police said they have reason to suspect the fires were caused by arson and that they were working with the state security services.

The incident took place outside a remote police station serving the police dog squad in Munich's Untermenzing district. The service vehicles were reportedly completely destroyed by the fire.

A spokeswoman for the Munich police headquarters said 50 officers were deployed during the night to search the area around the police station.

She said there were no dogs in the kennels at the time and no people or animals were injured in the fires. There was, however, significant damage to the building, she said.

According to the fire brigade, the first emergency call was received at around 2:40 am (0140 GMT), reporting a fire in the police station and several explosion noises.

By the time the fire brigade arrived at the scene, it said the 23 vehicles were "in full blaze." It took 45 minutes for the 45 fire fighters to extinguish the flames.

The intense heat from the fires caused several of the police station's windows to break, the fire brigade said.

Police are looking for witnesses in the district.

There have been repeated suspicious fires in and around Munich in recent years. It was initially unclear whether the fires are related.

(By Eszter Bottka and Britta Schultejans).