A fire destroyed a caravan which a man uses as his home in Xemxija late on Sunday night.

The man, a foreigner, did not appear to have been there when the fire broke out at about 11.15pm, close to the Simar nature reserve at Pwales.

Firemen from the Xemxija station arrived at the scene within a few minutes and put out the fierce blaze.

At one point one of them called to the other to be careful as he spotted what might have been a gas cylinder inside the caravan.

They searched the caravan for any signs of the man but nobody was there.

Neighbours said the man, a foreigner, slept there every night but was in the habit of going out for a stroll or a drink between 11 and midnight. 

The caravan, hooked up to a red car, was a permanent presence in the street.

The car was undamaged but the caravan was reduced to a burnt skeleton. No other vehicles were damaged.