Suspicious fire at church

Firefighters battled to save a south Auckland church after a suspicious fire early today.

The alarm was raised by an automatic alarm at 4.24am at the Te Takiwa Church in Cape Rd behind the Mangere Town Centre.

"The guys arrived there and couldn't see anything from the front," said Scott Osmond from the New Zealand Fire Service.

"When they went around the back they found one of the rooms at the back of the building on fire."

Firefighters managed to contain the blaze to the back room although there was some damage to the rest of the building.

Mr Osmond said the fire was being treated as suspciious.

- NZPA