Arsonists who caused £6,000 damage to a portable building outside a Southend school were not pupils, maintained the headteacher.

Bob Hellen, head of Cecil Jones School in Eastern Avenue, Southend, was convinced no members of the school had carried out the early morning attack.

He said: "It was not pupils of this school. Somebody took some pallets and a gas cylinder, and lit them where we have got some building work adjacent to the school.

"The damage was just contained to the portable building, because the fire brigade were there and the caretaker was on the site very quickly.

"The whole thing was dealt with, so not one child or parent would have known anything had happened."

A police spokesman said: "Someone stacked up wooden pallets inside and against a portakabin at the school and set fire to them. A gas bottle was then thrown on to the fire."

The building work, which was not affected by the attack at 6.30am last Thursday (March 8) is for a £1 million new arts block due to open in September at the school.

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