Harris City Technical College, HTC, became the target of an arson attack when it was set alight on Monday morning.

Croydon firefighters were called to the Maberly Road premises at 5am on Monday and police cordoned off two smoke damaged classrooms to investigate the scene. Arsonists' poor performance gained a ticking off from Carol Barnes, head teacher at the Upper Norwood college who said: "The people that did this if it was arsonists really didn't do a clever job. We've just got a broken window and some smoke damage and the school day has carried on as usual.

"Once the police and loss adjusters have completed their investigations we will be able to give the place a thorough clean up and find out the cost of the damage."