A 19-year-old man has been arrested after a toilet-roll fire forced thousands of people to evacuate a shopping centre.
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Police arrested the Ballarat teenager on Monday after releasing CCTV images from the Stockland Wendouree shopping complex.
Thousands of Christmas shoppers in the Ballarat centre were evacuated for 45 minutes on Friday afternoon following the fire in the men's toilets.
Victoria Police Senior Constable Adam West said cleaners quickly extinguished the blaze but shoppers were cleared from the centre due to residual smoke.
The Ballarat Courier reported scenes of pandemonium as panicked shoppers and employees fled Stockland Wendouree.
"All of a sudden the fire alarms started and then over the loudspeaker we were told to evacuate," one woman told the Courier
"People were running for the exits."
Centre manager Stevie Wright said a "few thousand" shoppers were affected.
The teenager was in police custody, assisting police with their inquiries, on Monday afternoon.