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John Swinney has vowed “all the force of the law” will be applied if a Glasgow tenement fire was deliberate.

Online speculation has suggested the blaze, on Stonyhurst Street in the Possilpark area of the city, was set willingly over concerns the building would be used to house asylum seekers, though police have said the cause is not yet known.

But local Labour MSP Paul Sweeney said he was part of a group of elected representatives who secured funding for the formerly derelict building to be used ease the city’s housing woes, with properties to be given to those on the waiting list of NG Homes.

Speaking to the Press Association in Glasgow on Monday, the First Minister said: “The cause of the fire is not yet known, there will have to be a full investigation by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

“But I am familiar with the information that’s been circulating about the suggestion that this could have been wilful fireraising, because of concern that the accommodation was to host migrants.

“Now, whether that’s the case or not, it is completely and utterly unacceptable, because wilful fireraising is a criminal offence in our society.

“Those involved should be apprehended, whatever the circumstances and whether this accommodation was to be used to house migrants or not, this type of behaviour is completely and utterly unacceptable and it must be addressed.”

He added: “What we’ve got to face here is that if this type of information has been circulated, behaviour of this type is being perpetrated, it has got to be apprehended and people have to understand if they’re going to be involved in racist activity, which is involving potentially wilful fireraising and any other threats to community safety, then all of the force of the law will be applied against them, because that behaviour is unacceptable in our society.

“The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Police Scotland, will have my strongest support in making sure those responsible, if that is the circumstances, will be apprehended.”

In a statement released on Monday, a Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Around 5.30pm on Sunday, September 6, we received a report of a fire in an empty building on Stonyhurst Street in Glasgow.

“Emergency services attended and the fire was put out by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. No-one was injured.

“Inquiries are ongoing to establish the full circumstances.”

While in a post on Facebook, Mr Sweeney suggested rumours about the housing being used for asylum seekers had led to the fire.

“After 20 years of these tenements sitting derelict, finally, after much work by myself and other elected representatives, we secured nearly £3 million in government investment to bring these tenements back, renovate them, so they can be used for the community in a city with a housing emergency,” he wrote.

“This block here will be used for housing those on the NG Homes housing waiting list, which is massively oversubscribed.

“It was never going to illegal immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers it was never intended for that purpose at all.

“So, anyone claiming that was spreading lies, misinformation, to generate clicks on social media, to whip up the community, wind people up and this is the upshot of it we’ve got potential massive multi-million-pound investment being destroyed in the midst of a socially-deprived community like this one in Possilpark, outrageous after so much effort.”