A man has been arrested in connection with three firebomb attacks on shops in south London including one in Croydon.

Detectives were last night (Tuesday) questioning a 33-year-old man from Stockwell about the deaths of Khizar Hayat who died last Thursday in a Pricecutter shop in Kennington and Hamidi Hamidullah, 31, an Afghan national who worked at the store.

The man is also being quizzed about an incident at a newsagent's in South Norwood.

Mr Hayat, a father in his late 40s, died after a petrol bomb was thrown through the window of the shop in Clapham Road, trapping him inside.

Two of his colleagues sustained minor burns while a third is critically ill in hospital.

The incident occurred one week after a bottle filled with petrol was set alight and thrown into a shop in Portland Road, South Norwood, at around 7.15am.

The bottle exploded causing a potentially life threatening fire which the shopkeeper a Sri Lankan man had to run through to make his escape.

He sustained burns to his arms and was taken to a south London hospital.

Six days earlier on April 14 a bottle of accelerant was thrown into a newsagent's in Tulse Hill. The fire burnt a customer's legs and was the first of the three attacks which police believe are racially motivated.

One South Norwood resident who did not want to be named said: "It's such a tiny shop and I wouldn't have thought this would have happened to them."

Other residents who live close to and regularly use the shop that sits on the corner of Grasmere Road reacted with disbelief.

"I'm very surprised. I was always in that shop and they were always very nice. It isn't safe at night here anymore," said Phyll Arthurs.

And Kenneth Chin, who has lived opposite the shop for 50 years, said: "I think it's very bad. I used to buy my papers there. It used to be safe but now I'm scared to go outside."