Three arrested after school blaze

Three teenagers have been arrested in connection with a fire that destroyed a wing of an abandoned Lower Hutt high school at the weekend.

The trio, a 14-year-old female and two 15-year-old males will appear in Lower Hutt District Court this morning charged with arson following the fire at Wainuiomata College, Wellington police communications manager Victoria Evans said.

Emergency services were called to college, southeast of Lower Hutt, about 12.20am yesterday.

A three-storey building containing 14 classrooms was severely damaged, with part of it collapsing.

At the height of the blaze 10 fire crews were at the scene.

Acting Detective Sergeant Anthony Tebbutt said the school had been a target for vandalism following its closure.

Wainuiomata College was one of five schools in the area shut down in 2001 because of falling rolls. In 2007 the site was given to the Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust as part of a Treaty of Waitangi settlement.

- NZPA