Police are investigating a suspected gas attack at a Fife beauty salon.
Staff at Complete Hair and Beauty in Dunfermline were left shocked and frightened after the incident which owner, Rona Beveridge said could have had “fatal” consequences.
Ms Beveridge believes her boiler was deliberately sabotaged in an attempt to flood the salon with poisonous carbon monoxide gas.
A plastic oil bottle had been cut out and placed over the gas flue at the back of the building, causing the toxic fumes to flow back inside the shop.
Fortunately for both staff and customers, however, the boiler’s safety system detected the presence of the gas and switched itself off.
Ms Beveridge said: “It’s unbelievable that someone could be that callous and do such an evil act.
“The consequences don’t bear thinking about. It could have been fatal.”
The sabotage was discovered when Rona called out plumbers after realising the boiler had turned itself off.
They inspected the gas flue and found the rogue bottle on top of the gas flue.
Rona said: “The boiler switched off around mid-morning. It flashed with an error code so I looked it up and phoned the plumbers.
“We’re lucky that we had a new boiler installed in December with a safety cut-off. “If we still had the old boiler we’d have been breathing carbon monoxide.”