KUWAIT: Hawally police made several arrests during raids at apartments where alcoholic drinks were being brewed illegally in the area. A total of nine apartments were raided during the operation, the Interior Ministry said in a statement yesterday. The suspects reportedly rented the apartments to use them for the sole purpose of brewing liquor, it added. The detainees were taken to the proper authorities for further action.

KUWAIT: This handout photo released by Kuwait Fire Force yesterday shows fire engines at the site of a storage area in Al-Rai where a fire was reported.

Separately, Kuwait Fire Force said that firemen battled a blaze that engulfed a 1,000-square-meter storage area for lumber in Al-Rai yesterday morning. No injuries were reported in the incident as an investigation was opened to reveal the cause of the fire. In the meantime, KFF also reported that firemen stopped a leak of hazardous material from a tanker outside a factory in Amghara yesterday.

In other news, Salhiya detectives arrested a suspected thief, who confessed to stealing rosaries worth KD 120,000. He said he made copies of the keys of a store where he worked, then disabled surveillance cameras during the theft, Al-Anbaa daily reported yesterday. He told police about two of his compatriots with whom he kept the stolen rosaries. An Arab resident rushed to Salhiya police and told them his store was burgled, accusing a person who works for him of committing the crime. Detectives found the accused was about to leave the country and were able to arrest him minutes before his departure.

Meanwhile, police in Rawda arrested a person who attempted to break into two ATM machines. The suspect then slipped into the house of a Kuwaiti man and took the keys of two cars before stealing them. The citizen told police the two cars were parked in front of his home in Yarmouk. The suspected thief was arrested from his Farwaniya residence, reported Al-Anbaa.