A councillor has called for greater security at schools shut for holidays after vandals twice set fire to the same school in under a week.

Firefighters were called to Delf Hill Middle School in Common Road just after 6pm last night to deal with a blaze in a classroom.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, but a fire brigade spokesperson said the ignition was believed to be malicious.

Last Tuesday arsonists broke a window at the school and set fire to books and papers stacked on the shelves.

Police have not yet been able to say whether the two incidents are linked.

Local councillor, Daniel Mangham, said he believed the firebugs were costing thousands of pounds worth of damage.

"I don't know who they are, but in my view they are obviously lacking in intelligence to do something like this to a school."

Coun Mangham said he did not know how arsonists could be prevented from setting fire to schools left empty for long periods of time over holidays.

But he said one deterrent would be to install more security measures.

"There's a lot of money spent on repairing damage to schools and I have no idea how to stop it, but I know that you can't have enough security at schools these days."

Fire fighter Philip Swaine from Odsal Station said last night's blaze was contained within 30 minutes of their arrival and confirmed it was being treated as malicious.

He added that the classroom would be out of action for the time being but that the fire wouldn't cause the closure of the main building of the school, which suffered smoke damage during the incident.

Last Tuesday arsonists broke a window at the school and set fire to books and papers stacked on the shelves.

Firefighters were alerted to that blaze just after 8pm by a local resident who saw smoke billowing out of the building.

The school was smoke logged by the fire, which also caused damage to the classroom.

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