POLICE were called after a fire was started in a shopping trolley wheeled directly under Paignton Pier early yesterday.

The trolley had been filled with cardboard which was set alight.

Firefighters also arrived at the scene after the alarm was raised at 1.30am.

They doused the flames which damaged the trolley, but not the pier.

Pier manager Richard Stevens was 'perturbed' by the incident.

"Fortunately, no damage was caused to the pier. All we had was a burnt out shopping trolley," he said.

He added: "I spoke to police afterwards, and they took away what's left of the trolley in a van."

A fire spokesman said the pier call-out was one of three received by the resort's station at exactly the same time.

"It was very unusual. We could have done with the incidents being spread out a bit more instead of all being at the same time," he said.

A retained crew was dispatched to the pier to deal with the incident while their colleagues attended a blazing car in Marldon Road, which turned out to be a car engine steaming and over-heating, and fire alarms sounding at the Esplanade Hotel.

A police spokesman said the alarm was raised by CCTV operators and smoke detectors at the scene.

Two 18-year-old men, one from Paignton and the other from Barnsley, were arrested on suspicion of arson shortly after the pier incident.

The pair were cautioned for arson and then released.