ARSONISTS started a fire in the yard of a factory which destroyed 10 tonnes of paper stacked on 100 wooden pallets.

Firefighters were called to the incident at Marsden Packaging Ltd, Moss Street, Little Harwood, just before 11.30pm last night.

Crews managed to stop the fire spreading to the factory which was closed.

Paul Guinnan, crew manager at Blackburn fire station said firefighters spent about two hours at the scene and nobody was injured.