A MASSIVE blaze wrecked a large part of a Bolton school today, forcing teachers to abandon plans to start the new term tomorrow.

Car thieves have been blamed for the £50,000 inferno at Brownlow Fold Primary School, which saw the roof collapse into the kitchen and hall of the single storey building.

A stolen Escort, which was previously seen racing around local streets, was driven on to the school site.

The car was abandoned against the school wall and set on fire.

Within minutes the entire roof of the school, in Darley Street, was in flames.

A school alarm, at 2am, alerted fire crews and firemen from throughout Bolton spent four hours battling to control the blaze.

The rest of the building was damaged by heavy smoke logging and water.

Head teacher Ron Hesford said today that he was "sickened" by the incident -- the worst case of vandalism at his school in the 17 years he has been in charge.

"It is just so mindless," he said. "The staff have been in most weeks during the holidays making preparations for the new term and they will be very upset."

The headteacher and several teachers who turned up to the scene in the middle of the night made frantic attempts to salvage the building's contents.

And Mr Hesford paid tribute to the fire crews who managed to stop the fire spreading to the rest of the open plan school, which he says could easily have been totally destroyed.

"They did a magnificent job managing to contain it into that area," he said.

Fire Station Officer Dave Pimblett described the blaze as "an act of wanton destruction".

"If the people who set fire to the car deliberately wanted to damage the school then there's no doubt that this is a major criminal act," he added.

The school had only recently had shutters fitted to the windows in a bid to cut down on the vandalism.

But Mr Hesford says he will now have to have talks with education bosses about trying to make the school, which is also used a community facility, more secure.

"Sadly it is the community which will lose out," he said.

The school's 230 infant and junior pupils were due to return to school tomorrow but Mr Hesford says they will now have to be kept at home and he will inform parents when he has some idea of when the school can reopen.