Glue sniffers are believed to have caused a blaze that threatened to destroy a Bingley school.

Firefighters were called to a fire on the roof of a new extension at Beckfoot School, Bingley, at 7.45pm yesterday.

Leading firefighter John Pittock said: "When we got there a section of the roof of the new section of the school was already well alight.

"We got two lads up there wearing breathing apparatus and luckily we managed to catch it before it got inside the school. Otherwise the whole school could have gone up.

"The new roof is made of plastic with foam underneath and a whole nine square metres had completely burnt away. Fortunately we caught it before it spread further.

"We found some glue containers up on the roof and it looks like there had been glue sniffers up there trying to burn glue to get rid of the evidence. The glue set fire to the building."

As well as a large section of the roof being damaged, a light in the new complex had been burnt and the interior of the school suffered water damage.