Arsonists burn out a southport Christian Centre minubus (otsnews.tv)

by
29th February 2016

Arsonists have targeted a Christian Centre minubus, which was used to transport elderly and disabled people across Southport.

The bus, which was totally destroyed in the blaze, belongs to Lakeside Christian Centre based on Southport Promenade and now church bosses say they have been left ‘totally saddened’ and do not know how long it will take them to raise enough money to get a new minibus.

Merseyside Police and Merseyside Fire & Rescue have now launched a joint investigation into the attack, which took place overnight on Sunday February 28.

It’s believed the offenders broke into the back of the minibus before setting a number of seats on fire.

Lakeside Christian Centre Lead Pastor Richard Vernon told our reporter he had no idea why anyone would set out to destroy the bus.

He said: “It leaves us very saddened – we have no idea why anyone would do something like this.

“I had a phone call this morning from our caretaker who came in at 6am to discover that the church minibus had been set on fire.

“I immediately came down to see what had happened – it’s pretty devastating. The police were called at half past eleven last night after the fire brigade had put it out.

“They say that it had been broken into and torched after they set fire to the back seats. It’s one of those very upsetting things which puts paid to everything that we do.

“We have a lot of groups here – elderly and disabled especially – and we use it for a host of activities across the week so it really hamstrings us in terms of what we can do.

“Potentially we will have to do a lot of fundraising to help pay for it to be replaced, we are just waiting on what the insurance company has to say about it.

“We can;t just go out and buy a new one. Why would anybody do this? It is a mindless act just done for some sort of kick.”

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