A property owner in the city of Taiz, southwest of Yemen, set fire to the apartment of one of his tenants while he was inside it with his wife and children, after a dispute over rent.

Local sources said that the owner of a house in the Old Airport neighborhood set fire to his apartment rented by a citizen named Mufid Al-Hasami, while the latter was inside it with his wife and four children.

The sources reported that the tenant, his wife, and his children were taken to the burns department at Al-Thawra General Hospital in the center of the city.

The sources explained that the reason that prompted the house owner to start the fire was his dispute with the tenant about raising the rent from the local currency to the Saudi riyal, at the beginning of the new year.

The Taiz police announced, in a statement, the arrest of the owner of the house and his imprisonment to complete its procedures, before referring him to the competent authorities.

As the value of the local currency continues to deteriorate in areas under the influence of the internationally recognized government, many property owners have resorted to raising rents on the condition that they be paid in Saudi riyals.