THIRTEEN fire crews tackled a huge blaze at a Radcliffe garden centre which devastated its summer stock.

And police have not ruled out arson as the cause of the fire, which left hundreds of thousands of pounds of damage, at Newbank Garden Centre in the early hours of yesterday.

More than 50 firefighters spent nearly two hours bringing the burning greenhouse and showroom under control. They were alerted to the blaze at 2.30am by a member of the public.

The contents of both buildings, including a variety of garden furniture and ornaments, were destroyed.

The owners of the Bury Road garden centre believe the cost of replacing the stock and rebuilding the storage areas will run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.

A spokesman for Newbank Garden Centre Ltd said: "We are still shell shocked. This couldn't have come at a worse time for us with summer approaching. It would have been a very busy time.

"Everything you would need to enjoy the summer has gone up in flames. This is a disaster."

At the height of the blaze, 13 fire crews tackled the burning buildings and pumped hundreds of gallons of water from the nearby River Irwell. Several teams of firefighters remained at the scene throughout yesterday dampening down the aluminium structures and dealing with small pockets of fire still burning in the debris.

A joint police and fire service investigation was also launched to established how the blaze started. It has not ruled out arson.

Newbank Garden Centre has been operating for 15 years.

The spokesman added: "There is a lot of work to do to begin cleaning the area but we hope to be back in business, in some form, in a few days."