A blaze at a Suffolk secondary school last night may have been started deliberately, the fire service has said.

Firefighters battled the blaze at Newmarket Academy just after 10.30pm last night and were praised for stopping the flames spreading.

Six crews from Suffolk and Cambridgeshire were sent to the incident at the Exning Road-school and police were also called around 10.50pm. An outside fire affected a small number of classrooms in the art block, and the firefighters - from Cambridge, Soham, Burwell and Newmarket - were able to bring the blaze under control and save the rest of the buildings.

A spokesman for Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service said the fire is "believed to be arson".

No-one was hurt and the fire service called 'stop' to the incident at 12.34am.

A spokeswoman for Suffolk police said: "We were called by the fire service at 10.49pm yesterday, following reports of a fire at Newmarket Academy in Exning Road.

"Police attended and enquiries are currently being carried out.

"Any witnesses should call Suffolk police on 101, quoting 37/30200/19."

Mark Hardingham, chief fire officer at Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service, tweeted: "Great work by firefighters last night. This could easily have been a significant fire spreading through the school. Well done, and the investigation now starts to see how it started."