Thirty elderly residents were evacuated from their homes last night after a suspected arson attack.

Fire crews from Chichester, Bosham and Bognor were called to a blaze at Rose Court, in St Cyriac's, Chichester, shortly before 8:30pm.

On arrival they found the home's garage on fire with seven cars inside. Police evacuated residents to the nearby Fernleigh Community Centre while firefighters tackled the blaze.

The crews stopped the fire spreading to the main building, which suffered only superficial external damage.

The garage and the cars were destroyed with the damage running into thousands of pounds.

Residents were let back into the home at 10.30pm.

The cause of the blaze is being treated as arson.