A plush Audi car worth nearly £50,000 is among four vehicles torched during a reckless crime spree in Lanarkshire. 

Police are hunting firebugs in the area after a series of deliberate acts - causing tens of thousands of pounds worth of damage in under an hour. 

Officers were first called to a shed set alight at a property on Ford Street in Motherwell at around 11.15pm on Tuesday.

Then at around midnight, an Audi A7 was found to have been deliberately set on fire within the garden of a property on Biggar Road in Newarthill.

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Anyone with information regarding that incident is urged to call 101, quoting 4084 of February 11.

Under an hour later, at 12.30am on Wednesday, police were called to an address on Main Street in Holytown, where three cars were found to be deliberately set alight at a resident's car park at the junction with St Andrew's Street 

Fire crews attended and extinguished the blaze.

Anyone with information is asked to call 101, quoting incident number 0079 of February 12.

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Area inspector for Bellshill, Graeme McLaughlin, said: "Significant enquiry is now underway to identify those responsible for these deliberate acts, however, we also appeal to the public.

"Should anyone have information regarding these incidents, please call 101, regardless of how trivial you think your report might be.

"You could be in possession of vital information.

"We will be increasing patrols in the localities affected.”