A VOLUNTEER assistant suspected of setting a French cathedral on fire has been indicted and detained in pretrial custody by prosecutors overnight.

The man, already held and released by police last week, was indicted “on charges of destruction and damage by fire” of the Gothic cathedral in Nantes, said the public prosecutor for the western city.

The blaze broke out on July 18, hours after the volunteer altar server closed the building for the night.

Prosecutors launched an arson investigation into the blaze, which they said appeared to have hit three different parts of Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul.

Police last week arrested the 39-year-old Rwandan national and then released him. His lawyer said at the time there was nothing directly linking his client to the fire.

But following developments in the inquiry, the man was rearrested yesterday and later appeared before a judge in the city, said prosecutor Pierre Sennes in a statement.

The blaze occurred just 15 months after a devastating fire tore through the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris.

It destroyed the Nantes congregation’s famed organ, which dated from 1621 and had survived the French revolution and World War II bombardment.

Also lost were priceless artefacts and paintings – including a work by 19th-century artist Hippolyte Flandrin – and stained-glass windows that contained remnants of 16th-century glass. – AFP, July 26, 2020.