THREE portable buildings have been destroyed in an arson attack on a west Belfast secondary school.
The principal of Christian Brothers School last night described the attack as "wanton destruction of an educational facility".
The fire service said the blaze was started deliberately at the Glen Road school at around 9.45pm on Monday.
Two fire appliances attended the scene and the fire was extinguished in just over an hour.
The arson attack happened on the first day back after the Easter school holiday break.
Principal Tom Armstrong said he was disgusted by the attack, which damaged portable buildings used mainly for PE that were just over three years old.
"It is wanton destruction of an educational facility," he said.
"Year 12 GCSE sports science work has been destroyed as well as A Level work. Absolutely no thought was given to the hard work our students put in for the person to then do this.
"One person can be seen on our CCTV and this will hopefully be used by the police. This was a very pre-meditated attack, a blow against our community. Why anyone would want to destroy school property beggars belief.
"Thankfully it was isolated to those three buildings. But we well get through this and rectify it."
Sinn Féin's Paul Maskey wrote on Facebook: "Seems some idiots thought it would be a great idea to break into the PE changing rooms at CBS.
"Not only did they steal some training gear they decided to set fire to the unit also. They dropped some of the items on the Glen Road at front of the school towards Ramoan.
"If anyone seen anything suspicious they should come forward with the relevant information. The PSNI have
the items that were dropped on the road. Thankfully the main school building was unaffected."
SDLP Belfast councillor Tim Attwood said: "It is disgraceful that people could wilfully start a fire in a mobile PE room at CBS Glen Road. It is outrageous that the hard work of students was also damaged in the fire attack.
"The community will rally around and support the staff and students of this great community college. CBS Glen Road develops fantastic young students every year and the actions of a mindless few will not stop that."