ASBESTOS rained down on a school following a raging fire at a nearby underwear factory, it was revealed today.

Small particles of sheet asbestos were found in the playground at the Muslim Girls School, in High Street, Daubhill.

And a clean-up operation was put in force over the weekend in a bid to clear the mess before children arrived for lessons this morning.

Chunks of the dangerous substance had flown into the air as flames destroyed the Delux Hosiery factory on Friday.

While the asbestos did not become airborne there were fears children at the school may have picked it up.

Fire sub-officer Rob Wight, whose Bolton Central crew was stationed outside the factory until 9am yesterday, said: "It was important all of the asbestos was cleared from the school.

"If it remained, then the headteacher would have had to make a decision as to whether to keep the school open."

Welders accidentally set the roof on fire using a blow torch, gutting the building within minutes.

Parts of the property still smouldered more than 48 hours after the fire broke out and a debate was raging over whether to demolish all of the building or just half of it.

The owner, Riaz Majid, had only recently spent £40,000 renovating the building.

He lost thousands more pounds in fire damaged stock.

At one point during the fire, concern had mounted that part of the building was in danger of collapsing onto a house.

The homeowners were told to evacuate the building until 6pm on Friday until the factory was made safe.

Sub-officer Wight added: "We were attending a small fire in the town centre when we got the call.

"Our appliances were at the scene within 90 seconds and by then the flames were already poring from the roof.

"There's a modernisation programme in place to remove asbestos from buildings but as we have seen in this case it will a long time before we are completely free of it."