A fire at a disused primary school may have been started deliberately just weeks after pupils were decanted out of their classrooms and into temporary premises.
More than 35 firefighters were called to the blaze at St Mary's Primary in Larkhall at around 2.30am yesterday.
The force of the fire was so great that a subsequent gas leak in the basement built up so much pressure in the surrounding sewer network it blew a drain cover 30 feet into the air.
Councillor Lesley McDonald said police believe the fire may have been started maliciously but the theory had yet to be proved.
Councillor McDonald said: "Things are at an early stage but it seems to have been started deliberately. If true, I find that absolutely disgusting. The fire at St Mary's is the second fire at a Larkhall school in 10 days."
Strathclyde Police said that inquiries into the blaze were continuing.
Fire crews from Motherwell, Hamilton and Bellshill fought the fire for more than five hours with a spokesman for Strathclyde Fire and Rescue adding that part of the school collapsed, but a section with listed status was saved.
Crews remain at the scene, dampening down the building with South Lanarkshire Council's building control department inspecting the premises.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article