MORE than 200 scrap cars were destroyed last night when firebugs torched Bolton's biggest car yard.

Police have launched an investigation after the fierce blaze at the Metro Salvage Scrap Yard in Waterloo Street just after midnight.

Fire crews battled with flames dozens of feet high for more than three hours.

Devastated owner Keith Wells, 33, from Halliwell, said: "We're just going to have to pick ourselves up and start again. We're not insured because you can't insure scrap yards.

"But at least we have a good chance of catching who did it because we have security cameras which would have filmed them. It's just mindless vandalism."

About a quarter of the hundreds of cars at the Waterloo Street yard were damaged.

Mr Wells was still assessing the destruction this morning but estimated he had lost between £10,000 and £15,000 worth of stock.

The arsonists were believed to have also joy ridden cars around the yard before torching the piles of scrap. They gained access by jumping over the security fence. Keith Wells outside the damaged yard this morning

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