OFF THE WIRE
CROOKS used a sledgehammer to smash their way into a Sydney tattoo parlour, doused the shop with an accelerant then set it on fire.
Sprinklers put the blaze out before firefighters reached the premises in Wellington St, Chippendale, just after 3am (AEST) today.
A Fire and Rescue NSW spokesman said the shop suffered smoke and water damage.
It is the latest in a series of violent incidents involving the city's tattoo parlours.
A 40-year-old man died after being gunned down inside a tattoo parlour in West Ryde on March 26.
A car was rammed through the front of a tattoo parlour in Mount Druitt Place, Mount Druitt, on January 13.
And a tattoo parlour in Coogee, said by police to have links to bikie gangs, was firebombed on December 29.
A police spokeswoman said it was too early to say if officers from Strike Force Raptor, the police unit targeting outlaw motorcycle gangs, would investigate the Chippendale fire.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/sydney-tattoo-parlour-set-on-fire/story-e6frf7jx-1226041575150
