TWO teenagers have been charged with arson after a fire badly damaged a Preston school.

The boys, aged 13 and 15, were charged with starting the blaze which caused more than £100,000 damage to the newly refurbished roof on Holme Slack Community Primary School, Manor House Lane.

Firefighters were called to the school at 7.15pm on Monday to find a fire raging in the west wing of the school.

It took two hours to bring the fire under control and save the school from burning to the ground.

One classroom was destroyed by the fire and water damage, the junior toilets were severely damaged and the hallway was left water logged.

The 210 children who go to the school have been kept away while the clean-up takes place, and teachers say lessons are expected to resume on Monday.

Staff say there will be enough room to accommodate the children who have lost their classroom, but portable toilets will have to be brought in for the junior pupils.

Acting headteacher Michelle Peck said: "It's absolutely devastating, the whole roof was being refurbished and we were only two weeks away from completion. Now we will have to start again.

"We had just moved into the new corridor, the carpet had just been laid, I can't believe it."

Three years ago the school began refurbishing the roof which had not been changed since 1934.

Father-of-two Ian Swales, whose son's Nathan, ten, and Alex, seven, attend the school, said: "It was Alex's classroom that was destroyed, its just such a shame.

"It's a good job the fire station was so close because otherwise who knows what might have happened."

The youths charged with the arson cannot be named for legal reasons and will appear before Preston Youth Court on Tuesday, September 14.