A POPULAR play venue has had to push back its reopening due to damage caused by a fire being more extensive than originally feared.

Firefighters rushed to Jump Xtreme and the adjoining ninja park Yusha Ninja in Trinity Retail Park shortly after 1am on Sunday morning.

According to a spokesman from Bolton Central Fire Station, the fire began in the kitchen area of the upper mezzanine, in Yusha Ninja.

Two fire engines from Bolton Central, a pump from Bolton North and a pump from Farnworth spent four hours at the scene.

Both the ninja park and the trampoline park suffered extensive smoke damage during the fire.

Speaking on Sunday, the manager of Jump Xtreme said they had to cancel a number of children's parties.

He said: "There are eight children's parties booked for today so I've had to phone round the parents telling them that we can't open due to events that were completely beyond our control.

"They are very upset, which is understandable. Those children will have been looking forward to today for weeks. They're going to be very disappointed."

Jump Xtreme was originally due to reopen today following Sunday's fire but management now fear it won't be able to open until next Tuesday, April 2.

The manager added: "We wanted to have a big re-opening but that's not going to happen due to unforeseen damages.

"For safety reasons, we're unable to open until next Tuesday.

"There's not much else we can say at the moment other than there is damage to the soft play equipment and smoke damage towards the back of the trampoline area."

The manager said he shares the disappointment and frustration and customers, but assured them that damaged equipment would be replaced before the reopening.

He said: "It's not just ourselves, it's the customers. There's 10 parties we're going to have to speak to now.

"We'd like to thank all customers for their amazing support and understanding though. We just want them to feel safe in our building.

"Our brilliant team have been hard at work cleaning the park to bring it back to our exceptional standards. Replacements will also be made before we reopen.

"We've had to speak to the soft play constructors and they've been brilliant. They're coming to replace everything but they won't be able to tackle it until the clean up job has finished."