Local Police say the accused was using a chain-saw on a steel structure which is thought to have been an abandoned billboard frame, and a spark from the tool may have led to the inferno, reported at around 16.20hrs.

Although now under control, the blaze- which started in the Las Lagunas area of Mijas, caused damage to the outside of three houses and led to a car going up in flames.

An elderly couple were taken to a hotel after their garden and garage went up in smoke when the flames circled the house and looked set to trap them inside.

It took two hours to bring the fire under control, but the 70 people evacuated as a precaution have not yet gone home.

Some 50 fire-fighters and nine hydroplanes were involved in extinguishing the fire, and four aircraft continue to keep it under surveillance in case of a fresh outbreak of flames.

Mijas was one of six towns in the province of Málaga to be affected by a massive inferno on August 30 which wiped out 8,225 hectares of land.