Teenage arsonists could cause huge damage to a busy shopping centre, firefighters have warned.

Persistent young firebugs have turned the back of Keighley Retail Park into an "arsonists' paradise", it is claimed.

Keighley Fire Station crew manager Stuart Shackleton said his team was turning out at least twice a week to put out fires behind the shops.

Skips, wooden pallets and even a dumped car had been set on fire.

Mr Shackleton said firefighters were called to three large skips simultaneously set alight at 6pm on Sunday. "Because it is the run up to Christmas they were all packed with cardboard," he said.

"Teenagers are climbing into the area and starting fires.

"We must have had hundreds of call-outs to the retail park, at least two every week.

"They break into locked skips and set them on fire. It is just a matter of time before a major blaze is started."

He said the Curries store on the retail park, off Hard Ings Road, was recently evacuated after a blazing skip spread smoke into the shop's air conditioning system.

"Local residents are really fed up with these fires as well," said Mr Shackleton.

"These teenagers are trespassing and it is only a matter of time before a blaze spreads to a shop building.

"The walls are blackened by the flames because the rows of skips are close to the back of the shops."

Inspector Paul Harkin, of Keighley Police, said the arson attacks were being investigated. "We are stepping up patrols to the area and closely following up any information," he said.