Father Pankratii, father superior of Glozhene Monstery, in the Stara Planina mountain-range near to the town of Teteven, set the monastery on fire twice in less than 24 hours, commercial bTV said on August 3 2008.

Father Pankratii caused a "real action story" according to bTV, who quoted police officers from the Lovech police.

According to the police, at about 20 minutes after midnight on August 3, police-officers responded to a tipp-off about a fire that had started in the monastery.

When policemen arrived at the scene, they found that the 50-year-old father Pankratii had gotten into an argument with a group of visitors. As a result of which he set the office of the monastery on fire.

According to Bulgarian-language news website mediapool.bg, the father even fired a shot with an eight-milimeter Zaza gun and fled the scene in his car in the direction of the nearby Golyam Izvor village.

Minutes later, he set the vehicle on fire and left it in the Predela area. The vehicle was completely burnt out, police said.

At about 6am on Augst 3, father Pankratii came back to the monastery and set the office premises on fire for the second time. Both fires were quickly put out by local firefighters and did not cause a lot of damage.

After the second fire, Father Pankratii was detained for 24 hours and, according to mediapool.bg, was sent to hospital because police thought his arm was broken.