Schoolchildren on their half-term break may be responsible for a spate of arson attacks across West Sussex.

The series of blazes in Worthing, Lancing and Chichester has had the county's fire crews working hard since Sunday and most are believed to have been started deliberately.

Worthing-based Station Officer Peter Martin, said: "I think all the fires are independent of each other but we are having increased numbers of malicious calls. Whether it can be put down to half-term week I do not know but it's a concern at the moment.

"There is nothing to indicate it was one person but, stretching across the coast, we've had fires. It could be bad habits kids are getting into."

Last night, a 30ft row of ornate seats and window frames at a pitch-and-putt course in Marine Gardens, Worthing, were set alight.

Two crews from Worthing fought the blaze for an hour.

A brigade spokesman said: "It was definitely arson, without a doubt.

"We stopped it from going into the main pavilion and the roof, so it was a good stop. The difficulty was getting the hoses that distance across the green."

In Lancing, at about the same time, crews were dealing with another suspected arson attack.

A recycling skip and a waste compressor, near Bubbles warehouse, were set on fire and crews had difficulty keeping the flames away from the building.

Several youths were seen leaving the scene on bikes.

At about 10pm, a 3ft-high lamp stand in the middle of the bandstand, by Woolworth's, Montague Street, Worthing, was set alight.

And firefighters averted a potential catastrophe when arsonists started a fire in a petrol station on Sunday.

Offenders had started the blaze in a bin next to petrol pump at the Sea Place pumping station in Goring, just before 9pm.

A spokesman for Worthing Fire Station said: "It was a plastic bin which of course ignited and caught quite well and started to involve the petrol pump.

"The potential was there for quite a serious fire. We have put it down as a deliberate ignition. The garage had been closed all evening so there was no reason for a fire to start in that bin."

More than 70 firefighters battled a suspected arson attack in a Woolworths store, Chichester, on Sunday afternoon.

The blaze, which took several hours to make safe, is thought to have spread from a pile of rubbish set alight near the store.