Nightclub owner charged with attempted murder as arson scheme fails on Spain’s Costa Blanca

THREE people have been arrested for arson and fraud for a fire at the Babylonia nightclub in Alicante on January 23.

Two of the defendants – the owner of the nightclub and a hairdresser – have also been charged with attempted homicide after causing a gas leak when a man who had been ordered to start the fire was preparing to do so in the building on Jovellanos street.

Police said the club was in debt and that one of the club’s two owners made several changes to its insurance policy in a short period of time, including an update the day before the fire.

The National Police are looking for his colleague who they believe may have fled the country.

The attempted murder charges were added to the charge sheet after forensic experts examined the scene and police took a statement from a man ordered to set the fire.

The 26-year-old Colombian citizen has been classified as a ‘protected witness’.

He worked for a hairdresser in the same building and borrowed €2,000 in December to help him, his wife and their young daughter through a difficult financial time.

The moment of revenge came a few weeks later when the club’s owners and the head of his barbershop told the man that he had to start a fire.

That was to happen around 1:00 a.m. on January 23 when the owners had already poured fuel onto the club’s dance floor.

The man brought two additional canisters of gasoline with him which he emptied and as he was leaving for the manager’s office, a large explosion tossed him into the air.

Unbeknownst to him and confirmed by police scientific experts, a gas leak had been deliberately started, which could have been fatal, but the man escaped and was driven from the scene by his head groom.

The owner of the nightclub in custody denies all charges and says he received a series of threats.