Gardai in Cork have said that more than £1 million worth of damage may have been caused to Douglas Shopping Centre over the weekend in a fire which began maliciously.
Four men who were arrested after the blaze were questioned at Togher Garda station and later released.
A file is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions. The men were held under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act.
Two shops in the shopping centre, Hills Newsagents and a clothes outlet known as The Stitchery, were particularly badly damaged. Three other outlets were also damaged but not as extensively.
Four units of the Cork and Carrigaline fire brigades were called to the centre at 2.58 a.m. yesterday when the fire was noticed.
It appears it began at a storage area adjacent to the side of the complex. A supermarket was undamaged and was open for business yesterday.
A spokesman for the fire brigade said the fire appeared to have spread rapidly through the roof area.
Meanwhile, five units of Cork city fire brigade were also called to a blaze yesterday morning which destroyed a three-storey building in North Main Street in which O'Sullivan's Jewellers was the main tenant.
The fire brigade responded to an emergency call at 5.40 a.m. after the alarm was raised, but by then the building was ablaze.
As firefighters were attempting to bring the fire under control, the roof of the building collapsed, and extensive damage was caused to the floors below.
A demolition firm was called in later yesterday once the fire had been contained, and gardai said a forensic examination would be undertaken once it had become safe to enter the ground floor.