Firefighters across South Yorkshire were called out to nineteen separate incidents over the Bank Holiday weekend where cars had been deliberately set on fire.

The blazes spanned Rotherham, Sheffield, Barnsley and Doncaster – with twelve of the fires taking place over a five hour period from midnight on Saturday.

In one of the incidents, a Renault vehicle was set on fire, then rolled down a hill, setting fire to a Fiat car in the process.

A spokesman for South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue said: “Setting fire to cars not only destroys people’s property, but it also puts the lives of residents and the attending firefighters at risk. Across the Bank Holiday weekend our crews were busy dealing with a number of car blazes – when they could have been needed at genuine life threatening emergencies.”