Staff at a British Red Cross charity centre came to work today to find their office had been attacked by an arsonist.

The incident happened in Chevallier Street sometime after midnight and 7.30am this morning.

An offender smashed a window at the premises and then threw a lit item through. Although the fire is believed to have extinguished itself, it caused extensive smoke damage within the building.

Simon Holmes, senior manager at the British Red Cross said: “The team has worked hard today to ensure that we can continue to provide our services from our centre in Ipswich. There has been a great effort by staff and volunteers to run first aid training and loan out medical equipment from the parts of the building which weren’t damaged by the fire.

“We are working to get the repairs underway as soon as possible and helping the police to determine the cause.”

Wearing breathing apparatus firefighters used two hose reel jets to extinguish the fire. It was out by around 8.05am.

Anyone with information should contact Pc Phillip King from Ipswich on 101 quoting IC/14/3540 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.