Firefighters from around the district teamed up to tackle a serious blaze at a boarded-up school in Undercliffe last night.

Around 25 firefighters from Idle, Odsal, Pudsey and Bradford were called out to the arson attack at Undercliffe Middle School, in Cliffe Road, at around 7.40pm.

A large crowd of youths looked on as the crews fought the flames for three hours.

Believed to have been started in a third floor store room, the blaze caused extensive damage to several large, adjoining rooms and a section of the roof.

While the fire crews were battling the flames they had some lighting equipment stolen from one of their engines.

Assistant Divisional Officer Keith Robinson, who supervised the operation, was frustrated at dealing with another derelict school fire.

He said: "This was quite a serious fire and we had firefighters from four different stations risking their lives for a building that is going to be pulled down.

"It is also quite a dangerous building to commit our firefighters to, because of all the vandalism that's occurred there. As far as we're concerned, the sooner these boarded up schools are demolished the better."

Undercliffe Middle is one of several schools which have been the target of repeated arson attacks since they were closed last summer as part of the education shake-up.

Councillor David Ward, Bradford Council's executive member for education, said he had highlighted similar concerns at the Eccleshill Middle School site which has been plagued by vandals and arsonists over recent months.

Since then, the Council had stepped up the demolition process which is now around two thirds complete.

"There are very few other school sites which are to be demolished. Most have solid buildings which will be used in the future."

And Coun Ward added: "Firefighters must be extremely angry about this situation. Every time they go out, they are risking their lives to some degree. It must be extremely frustrating when they know these buildings are going to be knocked down in the coming months anyway.

"It is also a great waste of public resources and shows the stupidity of those people involved in such attacks."