Groom Stops Wedding With Blaze

A reluctant groom set fire to the hotel where he was due to get married to avoid having to go through with the wedding.

Tatsuhiko Kawata had gone along with marriage plans despite already having a wife, the Yomiuri newspaper in Japan said.

Kawata, 39, decided to burn down the Risonare resort hotel rather than get hitched in front of 80 guests.

He reportedly told police: "I thought if I set a fire I wouldn't have to go through with the wedding."

Guests at the hotel were evacuated and no one was injured when he started the fire in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Kawata had been due to tie the knot later in the day at the hotel in Yamanashi Prefecture, west of Tokyo.

He was arrested after suddenly cancelling the event and behaving suspiciously.