Arsonists are being hunted after a wheelie bin was set alight and pushed against the front door of a Bradford house.

Police were carrying out house-to-house inquiries yesterday following the attack in St Leonard’s Road, Girlington.

Firefighters from Fairweather Green station arrived at the scene to find the front door of the terraced house was burning fiercely.

They searched the smoke-filled property but found no-one inside.

The incident, which occurred late on Tuesday, has alarmed residents in the street.

Dasawar Khan, 68, who rang the fire service after a neighbour spotted the blaze, said: “I have lived here for 23 years and I haven’t seen anything like this. Obviously you get scared because it could happen to anybody when you’re asleep.

“The fire brigade were really good because as soon as I rang they came really quickly.”

Mohammed Yaqoob, 73, said he returned home at about 11.30pm to discover the commotion on the road. He said: “I saw the fire and the police. It was quite shocking.”

A West Yorkshire Fire Service spokesman confirmed the fire was being treated as Arson.

He said: “We got it reported as a house fire and on arrival we could see a bit of smoke plumage. We weren’t sure whether someone was in but there had been a wheelie bin set alight and placed outside the front door. It looks as though it was a deliberate ignition.

“The door was well alight and we had no way of knowing whether the fire was internal or not.

“Luckily it had not spread to the hallway but the smoke would have caused significant impairment if anybody had been in there.”

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said: “The circumstances of the fire are being investigated.

“House-to-house inquiries are being conducted in relation to the matter.”

Witnesses, or anyone with information about the attack, have been urged to contact Bradford South Police on 0845 6060606.