Store Blazes Put British Police on Alert

Police ordered urgent security checks at post offices and shops across Britain today after overnight fires damaged department stores and incendiary devices were found in Christmas mail.

Anti-terrorist officers and police investigated the possibility that fires at four leading department stores, one of which was destroyed, were the work of animal rights activists or an anarchist group.

They feared further incidents as thousands of customers packed stores in the rush to finish Christmas shopping and post offices were inundated with Christmas mail.

In the worst incident, fire caused millions of dollars worth of damage to Dingle’s, the biggest department store in the southern city of Plymouth.

Smaller fires at Harrods and Selfridges in London and at Howell’s in Cardiff, Wales, were put out quickly and an incendiary device at the House of Fraser store in London’s Oxford Street was rendered harmless.

Suspicion fell on militants of the Animal Liberation Front.