A MUSEUM visitor who smashed three 17th-century Chinese porcelain vases in what he said was an accident caused by tripping over a shoelace was arrested yesterday on suspicion of causing criminal damage.

Nick Flynn, 42, said that he could not help falling down a flight of stairs and crashing into the Qing Dynasty vases on a visit to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. But police have examined CCTV images of the fall and are now investigating whether it was deliberate criminal damage.

A specialist ceramics restorer is glueing together more than 400 pieces to recreate the three vases and hopes to have one on show in the museum by June.

Mr Flynn, of Fowlmere, Cambridgeshire, was arrested at his home early yesterday. A police spokesman said: “A 42-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage in connection with an incident at the Fitzwilliam Museum on January 25.”

He has also been arrested in connection with an alleged assault in the city in February.

The vases — part of a set of five — were not insured. They have been valued at £500,000.

Mr Flynn, who is unemployed after a back injury, described the fall as his “Norman Wisdom” moment. After it happened he said: “I can say with my hand on my heart that it was not deliberate. I don’t think a movie stuntman would have been able to tumble downstairs, destroy the vases and come out unscathed.”

Last week he was barred from entering the museum during a media presentation of the restoration work. When Mr Flynn, who is 6ft and 13st, tried to gain entry to the news conference, nervous museum officials blocked his way. He said that he had returned to check that there were “no hard feelings”.

There is still a long way to go before the vases regain their former glory. Two of them bore the brunt of Mr Flynn’s fall and were left in hundreds of pieces ranging from shards to sizeable chunks sprayed over 30 steps. The initial clear-up took two and a half days. The third vase broke into only a few pieces. Parts of all three were mingled together and the position of each piece was painstakingly documented to aid the reconstruction.

The vases had been on display for more than 50 years and an estimated nine million people had walked past them on the stairs without incident.