Bognor shop opens a month after being set on fire

Barzan Aubid, owner of Baltic, which opened on Friday after the fire

Baltic supermarket, situated in the railway station concourse, had its front window smashed and petrol poured into it before being set on fire on the night of Wednesday, August 6.

Flats above it had to be evacuated and the shop suffered severe smoke damage which cost nearly £2,000 to fix.

The attack happened just days before the new store was due to open, but now owner Barzan Aubid has spoken of his delight at finally being able to open.

The shop sells food and drink from all over Europe

Mr Aubid, 31, said: “We opened on Friday and so far it’s going well.

“We’ve had people come in just to see what it looks like after the fire and they all say it looks good.

“It’s almost exactly a month since it happened, I’m very happy to now be open. I just want people to know that we are open and everybody is welcome.”

Baltic sells all sorts of food and drink from around Europe, including fresh meats and cheeses from its deli counter.

Some of the damage from the intentional fire

Mr Aubid said police had been in contact to say they were still investigating the attack.

He said: “Police said they had found the people who did it on CCTV but that the picture wasn’t very clear.

“They said they are still working on finding them and they are trying to find out where they bought the petrol from.

“I really hope they do find them. There was 100 per cent smoke damage to the inside so a team of six or seven of us have been cleaning and painting everything.

“It probably cost me £1,800 in total. I didn’t have anything in my shop when it happened, otherwise it would have cost me a lot more because I would have had to throw it all away.”

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