A St. George's resident said he and his wife were woken in the early hours of Sunday morning to find their car on fire.

Police attended the scene on Duke of York Street and the fire service extinguished the blaze, which engulfed two cars parked outside Robertson's Drug Store.

Owner of one of the cars, Richard Paynter said: "We were woken by a loud explosion. When we looked out of the window, a car next to ours had a raging fire inside of it. The fire department was called."

Mr. Paynter said the car on fire had a sliding door which was ajar about six or eight inches. He believes a vandal or vandals intentionally set fire to its interior.

"My opinion is that this was a mindless, senseless act as this was a sensible car that I'm sure no one set out to target," he said.

He added: "The flames were coming out of the windows and the doors of the car and started to move over to our car as well."

Firefighters were able to extinguish the flames in about 90 minutes, however both cars were a total write-off.

Mr. Paynter also noted that the incident happened just outside the St. George's Police station where a CCTV camera is located.

"I'm interested in seeing what footage the CCTV camera caught, as the cars are parked about 20 yards away.

"Our neighbour said he saw a vehicle leaving the scene moments after the first explosion," he said.

Mr. Paynter said when he went back to the scene later in the morning, Police had impounded the two vehicles for investigation and all that remained were two black spots on the road and the burnt remains of his licence plate.

He said: "Living in a small, quiet neighbourhood like this, I was surprised to see this act of vandalism happen. I would have never suspected it."

He said he was thankful his insurance company was able to settle his claim quickly and efficiently.

An investigation is underway into the cause of the fire arson has not been ruled out.