A 66-year-old man has been arrested over a suspected firebombing in Gosford.
The man was arrested at a home in Wallarah, on NSW’s Central Coast, at 1.30pm on Friday following an investigation into several explosions and a fire in the city centre.
He has been taken to Wyong Police Station, NSW Police said in a statement.
It comes after a Legal Aid building and a lawyers’ offices were hit in a ‘callous and brazen’ arson attack in Gosford on Thursday afternoon.
Emergency services were initially called to the Legal Aid building on Donnison Street before police were called to the Kensmen building on the same street following reports of a fire and of smoke coming out of the third floor.
It comes after police released a CCTV image of a man they wished to speak to who was seen in the area at the time of the suspected firebombing.
The grainy picture shows a white-haired man wearing a surgical mask, dull green cap and T-shirt and jeans with a bag sitting by his feet.
Superintendent Darryl Jobson, Brisbane Water Police District Commander said the suspected arsonist ‘ignited an improvised explosive device which I would describe as a small, domestic LPG (liquified petroleum gas) cylinder which caused a fire’.
‘The male has then left that location and it would appear that he has found or got another bag from another location that we are not aware of,’ he added.
The suspect then transported that ‘canvas bag on wheels’ to the Kensmen building, around 250metres up the road.
The man took a lift to level three where he allegedly ignited another firebomb outside the offices of Conditsis Lawyers.
Mr Dobson said detectives were not aware whether the man left the second building on foot or in a vehicle.
‘Motive is something that we are very interested in,’ he said on Friday.
It’s obviously that there is a reason why the man went to both locations and we are keen to ascertain what the reason is.’
Dramatic footage taken shortly after 8pm on Thursday showed around two dozen detectives and balaclava-clad riot cops descending on an apartment building on Baker Street, 100metres from the Legal Aid building.
Fresh pictures taken on Friday morning show the extensive damage to the lawyers’ offices, which remain closed to staff as investigations continue.
It appears the blaze destroyed a door and a wall and left scorch marks on the carpet just metres from the government building’s public seating area.