DETECTIVES are hunting arsonists who hit a number of small businesses when they started a blaze in a Bolton industrial unit last night.

The firebugs forced open side doors at the large two-storey brick building on St Mark's Street, Great Lever.

The doors led to a ground floor electrical storeroom. But when the intruders failed to get any further into the large building - which houses a variety of busineses - they set fire to a mattress in the storeroom.

Luckily someone who was passing at 10pm last night spotted smoke and dialled 999.

Firefighters prevented the flames from spreading to the main body of the building.

But the smoke spread to TJ Motors next door and the Coliseum gy mnasium on the first floor. It also hit a a storage area for a car boot sale held on the site every Sunday. Fire crews had to smash down doors and bring in a special machine from Eccles to disperse the thick black smoke and were at the scene until the early hours of today.

The fire also cut off the electricity supply to the building and today insurers were assessing the damage.

Bolton firm Cringle Investments lease sections of the building to a number of local firms.

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