A MAN has been charged today in connection with an alleged arson attack at an Ipswich high school.Ashley Norman, 18, of Clifford Road, Ipswich was arrested following a blaze at Copleston High School on Sunday, August 27.

A MAN has been charged today in connection with an alleged arson attack at an Ipswich high school.

Ashley Norman, 18, of Clifford Road, Ipswich was arrested following a blaze at Copleston High School on Sunday, August 27.

The fire devastated offices, a staff room and science lab in the old part of the Copleston Road school.

Parts of the building had to be demolished in the wake of the blaze and some pupils faced delays in getting back to school at the beginning of the school term.

Mobile classrooms and toilets also had to been delivered to cope with the loss of facilities sustained in the blaze.

The fire caused hundred of thousand of pounds of damage to the school and saw dozens of firefighters deployed to the scene.

A police and fire investigation was launched in the hours following the blaze and it was treated as suspicion early on because two separate fires had broken out on the site in the course of the evening.

Norman is due to appear at South East Suffolk Magistrates' Court on October 10 charged with arson.

A 16 and 18-year-old were also arrested on September 1 in connection with the fire are due to answer bail at Ipswich police station on October 30.