Irish cycling team Aqua Blue Sport suffer arson attack on team bus
Irish professional cycling team Aqua Blue Sport have had their team bus set on fire in what Spanish police believe to be an arson attack.
In a statement, Aqua Blue have said that around 1.20am in Almeria, where the team have been staying after stage 11 of the race "a mattress was placed under the rear of the vehicle and set alight".
Spanish police arrested someone at the scene.
Luckily. no one has been injured.
The team posted photo's of the bus on their Twitter account.
The team owned by Corkman Rick Delaney has been competing in its Grand Tour after getting through on a wild card basis.
The team also features Irish rider Conor Dunne.
A statement released by Aqua Blue said: "At approximately 1.20am on 31st August, 2017 the Aqua Blue Sport Team Bus was completely gutted in a cowardly arson attack.
"The incident happened outside the Tryp Indalo Hotel in Almeria where the team were staying over night. The bus was parked on an adjoining street of Trevesia de San Luis.
"A mattress was placed under the rear of the vehicle and set alight. A suspect was arrested by local police near the scene and is currently in custody.
"As this is an active investigation we will not be releasing any further information.
"We would like to extend our gratitude to the Fire Service and the Police for their help during this difficult time. We would also like to thank Unipublic and ASO for their assistance."
Members of Aqua Blue took to social media to express their shock and disappointment including five-time Irish National Champion Matt Brammeier tweeting that he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
The team have since got a new bus and have tweeted that nothing was going to stop them from competiting today and thanked everyone for their support.
