The landlord of a pub near to a derelict warehouse where a suspicious fire occurred yesterday has said youths often break into the site.

Ipswich Star: Photo courtesy of iwitness Peter ChambersPhoto courtesy of iwitness Peter Chambers (Image: (c) copyright citizenside.com)

Fire crews were called to the blaze at the two-storey Anglo Norden warehouse near Landseer Road, Ipswich at 5.48pm.

Officers have today appealed for help to trace “a person seen leaving the building” just before the fire started.

Mike Keen, landlord of The Brewery Tap on Cliff Road, said: “We constantly get problems with kids breaking into the site out the back.

“It’s a derelict site so there’s lots of interesting things for them to get up to mischief with.

“They smashed a couple of cars out the back recently. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if they had something to do with the fire.”

Mr Keen said the problem had been ongoing for two to three years but it had been getting worse recently.

“We have called the police numerous times, they’ve been up lots of times lately.”

It is understood there was no one in the building but it did contain 200 tonnes of rock salt in large bags.

A Suffolk police spokeswomen said “extensive damage” was caused to the second storey of the building.

It took around 30 minutes to tackle the worst of the fire in the brick building, but was not classed as fully under control until around 7.40pm.

Station Commander Simon Hurst said: “We’re treating it as suspicious because of its nature. There’s nothing in there to catch fire in the normal way.

“There’s no electricity in there so its more likely to have been deliberately set.”

An investigation will now be carried out to determine the cause of the blaze.

To help, call Pc Alastair Maidment at Ipswich on 101 quoting reference IE/15/1135, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.