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Police have arrested two suspects in connection with Victoria's disastrous bushfires and are searching for a third in a widening hunt for Australia's most despised criminals.
The arrests came as 150 detectives in a special task force combed through the devastation left in the wake of the fires
that have killed 181 people.
The final toll could rise as high as 300. The two men were arrested near Taggerty, north of Melbourne, yesterday morning in relation to "suspicious behaviour" between Seymour and Yea.
Police said the investigation was in its initial stages and provided no further details.
In Gippsland, east of Melbourne, detectives said they were close to releasing the image of the person suspected of setting fires that killed 21 people.
Victorian Police Deputy Commissioner Simon Overland told reporters that police had been given numerous leads, and that investigations had included a serial arsonist known to have been in the area for some time.
"It's too early to say whether it was that person that was responsible for the fire that happened on Saturday, but that's obviously something we will follow through," he said.
Fury at arsonists has soared as police confirmed that as well as the Gippsland deaths, arsonists may have been responsible for the fire that almost completely razed the township of Marysville, where the death toll could rise to 100. So far eight deaths have been confirmed in the town.
And even as firefighters battled to save more lives and property, two fires were deliberately lit near Beechworth, in northeast Victoria, on Tuesday night. The outbreaks were controlled before they could cause further significant damage to an already ravaged area.
In New South Wales, where a review of the state's arson laws was launched this week, two people have been charged with lighting fires.
Major bushfires have also been burning in that state.
Jason Nicholas Farrell, 31, of Sydney, was refused bail on a charge of lighting a fire near Gosford on Saturday, and a 15-year-old boy has been charged with starting another blaze in the Blue Mountains. NSW Premier Nathan Rees said that bushfire arson carried a maximum penalty of 25 years and that no mercy would be shown to convicted firebugs. "We will throw the book at you," he said.
His anger has been reflected in Canberra, where federal authorities warned that arsonists convicted of setting fires that caused death could be charged with murder. "This is simply murder on a grand scale," Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said, urging a new drive against firebugs.
Arson is likely to be discussed by federal and state ministers at the next meeting of the Council of Australian Governments, which urged national action in its inquiry into the 2003 bushfires that swept across southeast Australia.
Earlier, an Australian Institute of Criminology study warned that as many as 50 per cent of the nation's bushfires were deliberately lit.
