Fire guts 10th church in Alabama

This is the tenth church to be burnt in two weeks

A Baptist church in Alabama has been severely damaged by fire, in what investigators say is the 10th arson attack in less than two weeks.

Police suspect that the fires, which have gutted Baptist churches across the state, are linked.

But they do not think the attacks are racially motivated, because five of the churches had mainly white congregations and five black.

The latest fire happened on Saturday at Beaverton in northwest Alabama.

Investigators said it was deliberately set.

"It's definitely arson," said Ragan Ingram, a spokesman for the state fire marshal's office.

Two suspects

But Eric Kehn of the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said it was too early to say if the Beaverton fire was connected to the other nine blazes.

Four churches were set alight in the west of the state on 7 February, a few days after five had been torched in central Alabama.

No motive has been given for the fires.

The Baptist Church is the dominant faith in the area. Four of the churches affected are members of the Southern Baptist Convention.

A decade ago, 30 churches in the US south-east with mainly black congregations were set alight in suspected racially motivated attacks.

But in the recent incidents there has been no racial pattern.

Police said based on witness reports from the first nine fires and behavioural profiling, they were looking for two white males in their 20s or 30s.

They have offered a reward for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrators.