CONCERNS have been raised after arsonists started a major fire at a derelict former school in Bradford – in at least the third incident at the site in the last six years.

Fire crews from Bradford, Odsal and Cleckheaton were called to the former Yorkshire Martyrs School in Westgate Hill Street, Tong – next to Tong High School – just before 8pm yesterday.

A spokesman for the Bradford crew said firefighters had managed to contain the blaze within the school’s old assembly hall.

Around 25 per cent of the ground floor of the two-storey building, measuring around 60m by 50m, was said to have been involved in the fire.

Crews were at the scene until around midnight to make the disused building safe.

The fire is thought to have been started deliberately.

The former Roman Catholic school closed in 2010 after a re-structuring by the Leeds Catholic Diocese, brought about by falling numbers of children on the rolls at Catholic schools in Bradford.

It has previously been targeted by arsonists in 2011, when fire ripped through an old science block, and in March 2015, when someone broke into the building and set fire to materials inside.

Fire crews said they did not see anyone at the site yesterday, but said there were signs of previous break-ins, and expressed doubts over the future of the building.

One resident on Tong Street, who said they owned land near the school, said she had seen fire crews in attendance and had gone to see what was going on.

She said the land had recently been sold on and described the buildings as being “in a right state”.

“There’s always people in there, we saw a group of around seven men getting into one of the buildings just the other week,” she said.

At the site yesterday, metal sheets could be seen ripped or torn away from the building, which was littered with blackened and broken windows.

In July 2015, following the arson attack in March of that year, the Leeds Catholic Diocese applied to Bradford Council for permission to tear down part of the fire-damaged buildings.

Local authority planners said approval was not required for the demolition, stating the building was an “eyesore and a risk to the public from potential collapse”.

The Diocese had said demolition work would start in August 2015, but yesterday a spokesman confirmed that the site had subsequently been sold in June last year.

They said the new owners were Apollo Beds Ltd, based in Liversedge.

When contacted by the Telegraph & Argus, the company said a manager was not available to comment on their plans for the site or its current state.

The land surrounding the site is part of the Tong Leadership Academy.

Councillor Alan Wainwright (Lab, Tong) said: “The owners want to get it pulled down. It is dangerous.

“It needs pulling down because it is a temptation for certain morons.”