Police are searching for a man they say intentionally set a house on fire early Christmas morning.

Officers say 24-year-old Manuel DeLeon Cuellar, of Jamesport, broke into his girlfriend's apartment on Westwood Drive just after 2 a.m.

Authorities say Cuellar assaulted his girlfriend, took some of her belongings and set fire to the downstairs apartment.

Cuellar is also accused of hitting a police officer who was responding to the house with his pickup truck. He then crashed less than a mile away at a 7-Eleven. Police say Cuellar fled on foot and has not yet been apprehended.

Cuellar's girlfriend and the officer suffered injuries that were not life threatening.