Overview
- Police charged two boys, 16 and 17, after Friday's pre-dawn blaze at Soho Restaurant and Bar in Southbank.
- Investigators say the pair carried machetes and jerry cans, lit the fire at about 4:20am, then fled in a silver Nissan Patrol before being arrested in Balwyn.
- At least six venue attacks have been logged since Tuesday, including fires at The Emerson in South Yarra and The Albion in South Melbourne and a single gunshot at a Lonsdale Street site minutes before the Southbank blaze.
- Detectives say the motive is unclear but they suspect criminal handlers are paying youths a few hundred dollars to carry out arsons, and business owners have not reported extortion demands.
- Police have ramped up overt and covert patrols and urged people in the CBD and Chapel Street areas to call Triple Zero about suspicious activity, while also probing links across the cases and a separate arrest of a 25-year-old over a South Melbourne fire.