A BLAZE which forced hundreds of clubbers attending a VIP opening night to evacuate a nightspot is being treated as possible arson.

Firefighters were called to the Afterlife Club in Red Lion Street, Burnley, at 12.05am on Sunday when three floors of the four-floor nightclub were engulfed in smoke.

The blaze started in a storeroom on the second floor while 800 people were in the building, operations manager Phil Harrison said. He added that the club was due to re-open this Friday.

Today a police spokesman said the fire was still being investigated and was being treated as suspicious.

All the clubbers were evacuated before firemen arrived. Members of the Vision Leisure security team who work at the club tried to fight the flames with extinguishers but they were affected by the thick smoke and had to leave the building. Firefighters wearing breathing equipment put out the blaze.

The club was granted a late-night licence to 2am in September.