We fear for our lives

Mohammed Iqbal's family were asleep in Bold Street, Accrington, at 2.15am when the petrol-bombers struck.

"My eldest son was woken up when he smelled smoke. He was in the bedroom directly above where the fire started."

Mr Iqbal, who was working a night shift at an Accrington takeaway , added: "He shouted to everybody to get out. Nobody had time to put anything on.

"They were in their nightwear and bare feet in the street. They banged and kicked at the door of friends to get the fire brigade."

The arson attack was one of four incidents early on Saturday. A petrol bomb was thrown at the Asian-owned M&M greengrocer's in Briercliffe Road, Burnley, and two cars were firebombed in Padiham.

Meanwhile, Lancashire Police imposed bans on marches and demonstrations in Blackburn, Darwen, Hyndburn and Pendle over the weekend. A second ban. covering public assemblies, will last until the end of September.

Mr Iqbal said: "My son rang me at work. He said, 'Dad, come home.'

"When I got there luckily everybody was out of the building and safe. But they were very, very shocked. My wife was hysterical.

And he added: "We fear for our lives." Mr Iqbal, his wife Irshad and six children, who are aged between seven and 19, are now staying at a friend's house near to their burned-out home.

"We don't know what we will do. We must wait and see, " he said. "The longer I think about it, the worse it gets."

Mr Iqbal ran Iqbal's Newsagents from the family home in Bold Street before harassment by local youths forced him to stop trading two years ago. "I had five or six years of trouble,' he said.

"Why have they done this to us?" he asked.

"We haven't been doing bad things to anyone."

A police spokesman said the fire had probably been started by lighted petrol in a milk bottle, pushed through a window which had recently been broken by vandals.

He appealed to anyone who had seen anything suspicious in the Bold Street area in the early hours of Saturday morning to contact Accrington police station.