School damaged in arson attack

A group of teenagers are thought to have climbed over a fence at RL Hughes Primary School in Ashton and set fire to a shed.

The blaze spread to the main building and badly damaged a classroom.

Firefighters from Wigan and Hindley were called to the Mayfield Street school on Friday night and spent three hours there.

Mark Anderson, watch manager at Hindley fire station, said: "We received it at just after 10.30pm to say the school was on fire.

"On arrival it was a shed which was attached to the school, which had then spread to the school and damaged a classroom.

"The classroom is now not usable."

Mike Fairhurst, crew commander at Wigan fire station, said: "We did quite well because we got a good hit on the fire straight away and stopped it spreading into the rest of the school.

"The outside of the school was wooden-clad and the whole of the outside of that building was affected. It affected the roof and we had to strip away inside the classroom as well.

"We did a really good job because it was just the classroom that it ended up affecting, not the rest of the school."

He added: "It's a shame for the kids just before Christmas."

The fire is believed to have been started deliberately and police attended to launch an arson investigation.

A police spokesman said: "We are treating it as suspicious.

"The description of the offenders is aged 14 to 17, about seven of them, all men.

"Any information can be passed on via 101, quoting log number 2626 of December 9."