Horror as arsonists set fire to building - as children's class is taking place inside

A martial arts club in Rochdale is "horrified" after arsonists set fire to their building while young children were inside, taking a class.

On Tuesday April 26, in the evening, Cobra Kai Ju Jitsu Club was running a class with more than 20 children present at St James' Church Hall on Tower Street in Heywood, when parents began reporting the smell of smoke.

It turned out to be a fire coming from the ladies' toilets in the church hall, which belongs to St James Church, situated opposite. The fire is thought to be an arson attack after the perpetrators allegedly climbed onto a window ledge outside before setting fire to the toilets from there.

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Sensei Julie Martin, from Heywood, who runs the club with her husband, Chief Sensei Dave and their daughter, coach Jade, told the M.E.N. about the "terrifying" ordeal.

She said: "We started our classes at about 6pm and we had children in from the age of five, and mums with their babies in prams. And the parents kept coming to me and saying 'we can smell smoke in the ladies toilets’. Nobody realised it was a fire until it had properly caught an hour later.

"We could smell the smoke, but we couldn't see anything. So one of the dads went round the back to have a look and he said he couldn't see anything. B ut what we didn’t realise at the time was that the insulation in the roof was alight, so there was this horrible smell coming.

"After the senior class ended, one of the senior students said ' the smell is absolutely awful and I can hear clicks and cracks. I am going to have a look, because it’s not right.'

"It was only my husband, Dave and two of the senior students left in the