The owner of a rare Mini fought to save his prized car from turning into a fireball after arsonists targeted the vehicle.

Charles Graham, 53, was in bed on Tuesday night when a passer-by banged on his door to tell him smoke was pouring from the red car parked outside his house in Queens Park Road, Brighton.

He dashed out to find the car filled with smoke, the driver's seat ablaze and the passenger window smashed.

After dousing the inside with buckets of water, he discovered a large pebble inside a canvas bag, like a school gym bag, which had been wrapped in petrol-soaked slow-burning gauze.

The stone had been thrown on to the driver's seat through the smashed window.

Firemen who arrived at the scene just as Mr Graham had put out the fire alerted police who are carrying out forensic tests on the vehicle.

He managed to save the car from exploding into a fireball but the inside was badly damaged.

Mr Graham, a painter and decorator, blames "mindless vandals" for the arson attack that almost destroyed one of the few remaining Mini Mokes in the country.

The 1988 vehicle is the only red Mini Moke in the Brighton area. It was originally registered in Portugal and had been converted from left-hand drive.

An angry Mr Graham said: "It has been my pride of joy since I bought it on Merseyside. It was in very condition and the vandals who did this must have known what they were doing. You don't soak a large pebble in slow burning gauze, light it and put it in a canvas bag for nothing.

"It was lucky the bag was on the driver's seat. If it had been on the passenger seat it would have been nearer the petrol tank and the heat could have ignited the fumes and turned the car into a fireball.

"It's a bit much when you can't park your car outside your own home without fear of it being set on fire by arsonists."