British cops nab teens over Sony riot fire

Millions of discs torched.

British Police have arrested three teenagers allegedly connected to a massive fire that destroyed a Sony warehouse near London this week.

In a brief statement earlier today, Police said that two men, aged 17 and 18, remained in custody, while a third man, aged 17, had been granted bail.

The three were arrested "in connection with violent disorder and the arson at the Sony Distribution Centre" in Enfield.

The centre had reportedly been looted before it was torched in riots across London this week.

A Sony corporate website listed the address as being a facility of its digital audio disc corporation (DADC) unit, which made CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs.

Screen Daily reported that there were some 25 million discs in the warehouse at the time of the fire for customers including Sony Pictures and Pias.

The company was attempting to remanufacture about 1.5 million discs in other European plants, the report said.

Other discs would be remade elsewhere since the centre was only storing them on behalf of film distributors.

Music and DVD distributor Pias lost 3.2 million discs in the fire that it distributed in the UK and Ireland on behalf of a laundry list of mostly independent record labels.

"Labels and artists affected by the destruction of the Sony DADC warehouse are faced with incredible pressures on their businesses in respect to the re-manufacture, re-supply and marketing required as a result of the fire," the company said today.

"Whilst it is expected that insurance will cover the lost stock, the reality for many labels is that they will not be compensated or insured for an interruption of trade or the additional capital to reproduce the stock that they have lost and the promotion in which they have invested."