Witness Appeal for arson at Highfield House Hotel on Sunday morning, 7 September 2025

Press release by Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary:

Officers are investigating an arson at the Highfield House Hotel, which occurred in the early hours of Sunday morning (September 7).

We were called around 2.15am, after a flare was put through an open ground-floor window. Thankfully, the fire caused by the flare was quickly put out and nobody was injured.

Enquiries are underway to establish the exact circumstances of the incident, including locating two people seen approaching the hotel and then fleeing the scene.

The two people left the area along Shaftesbury Avenue. One was wearing a dark hooded top and had his face covered, and the other had a white hooded top on.

Following the incident, officers were at the hotel on Sunday conducting enquiries, with these continuing this week. We are also carrying out additional patrols in the area this week.

If you have any information which could assist our enquiries, then we would urge you to get in touch, either by calling 101 or by going to our website, and quoting the reference 44250404868.

Chief Inspector Chris Douglas said: “Fortunately, this fire was quickly put out, but this was an extremely dangerous act and could have had fatal consequences.

“Our local neighbourhood policing team will be carrying out additional patrols in Portswood in the coming days, and if anyone has any concerns then please do speak to them.

“I want to urge anyone with information, however small you think it may be, to get in touch and share this with us. If you have any CCTV which may have captured the two men either in the moments leading up to or after the incident, then we would ask you to share this with us.

“We are working closely with local authorities as part of this investigation.”

You can also share information 100 per cent anonymously by calling Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111, or by going to their website.