Quebec provincial police arrested two suspects in connection with a series of cellphone tower fires early Thursday morning.

The Sûreté du Québec said a man and a woman in their 20s were arrested around 1:30 a.m. in Sainte-Adèle, north of Montreal.

The pair will meet with investigators later in the day, according to police.

The arrests come after seven fires involving cellphone towers in areas north of Montreal over the past week, including two late Wednesday night.

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Quebec provincial police launched an investigation earlier in the week. Investigators were probing whether the fires are in any way tied to conspiracy theories about 5G technology and the novel coronavirus.

False narratives around 5G — the fifth-generation technology standard for cellphone companies — and COVID-19 have been shared hundreds of thousands of times on social media, leading to attacks on towers across Europe.

The City of Prévost, where one of the fires took place, had even taken to social media to tell residents that the telecommunications tower did not have 5G capability.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had also tweeted about the string of fires late Wednesday before the arrests, calling them “serious criminal offences” that carry severe penalties.

“Vandalizing cellphone towers does nothing but threaten emergency services and impact the daily lives of Canadians across the country,” he wrote.

— With files from the Canadian Press

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