LIFE> Odds and Ends
Groom's fire escape
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-07 15:27

A Japanese man set fire to a hotel where he was due to get married in order to stop the service.

Tatsuhiko Kawata, 39, had continued with the wedding plans even though he already had a wife.

He became so desperate to halt the nuptials he burnt down the guest house just hours before the ceremony was set to take place.

He said: “I thought if I started a fire I wouldn't have to go through with the wedding.”

No-one was injured in the blaze, but all the guests at the hotel in Yamanashi Prefecture, west of Tokyo, had to be evacuated.

Kawata had been due to marry his finacee before 80 guests. He was arrested after he cancelled the ceremony and started behaving suspiciously.