THE roof of a Runcorn youth club has been gutted by flames months after staff were celebrating a revamp.

Runcorn Boys' Club, Boston Avenue, was targeted by arsonists last Thursday at 11.30pm.

Firefighters said the building was ‘well alight’ when they arrived and called a further two crews from Widnes to battle the blaze.

Colin Heyes, arson prevention manager, said: “This was a serious fire which was started deliberately.

“The building is a long standing and well known community centre and this fire will affect many groups of people, including the Junior football teams which lost equipment in the blaze.”

Fire crews from Runcorn rotated duty at the incident throughout the night to monitor the building and ensure no further out breaks of fire.

Police closed roads around the area for several hours during the incident.

The club was closed briefly in May this year, after being open for more than 20 years, when an army of volunteers helped transform the building.

Anyone with any information is urged to call Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111 or Cheshire Police on 101.