Fire and police investigations have been launched into a spate of potential arson attacks in Colchester.

They all happened in the Mile End area of the town - including an attempt to set the visitors centre at High Woods Country Park ablaze.

Colchester firefighters were called to three fires during the course of Saturday night; a car fire, a shed fire and the fire at High Woods Country Park Visitors Centre at 12.26am in the early hours of Sunday morning.

A spokesman for Colchester fire station said they were treating the fires as "suspected arson".

He said police officers and a country ranger attended the scene and a fire investigation had been launched in to all three incidents which could be linked.

It was business as usual at the visitors centre yesterday (Sunday) and countryside ranger Richard Smith said: "There is not a great deal of damage. They set alight to a fire door and this caused some smoke damage inside the centre, but apart from that we have been blessed."

Insp Alan King, of Colchester police, said: "The fire investigation officers together with scenes of crime officers will consider if the fires were suspicious.

"There were a couple of fires in that neck of the woods and we are looking to see if they were of a criminal nature. If they were we will be investigating them."

Damage - Richard Smith, ranger at High Woods Country Park, Colchester, inspects the burnt doorway.

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