Beach cafe fire treated as arson

Police are treating a fire at a cafe on a beach in East Sussex as arson.

The Beach Retreat Cafe on Pett Level Road at Winchelsea Beach was badly damaged by the fire at about 2200 BST on Friday night.

Police said on Tuesday that fire investigators thought it had been started deliberately and said the cost of repairing the damage would be high.

They said there were potentially explosive gas bottles in the cafe which made tackling the flames difficult.

Fire investigators from the forensic science service are helping police look into the incident.

Sussex Police want anybody with information about the fire to contact Bexhill CID.