Firefighters racing to one blazing East Sussex school did a double-take as they saw flames leaping from a second.

Neighbours of Seaford Head Lower School, Steyne Road, in Seaford, made a 999 call at 7.45pm yesterday alerting crews to a blaze in the boiler room.

But the firefighters thought they had been given the wrong address as they drove past Annecy Roman Catholic Primary School, 300 yards away in Sutton Avenue, which was also on fire.

Both blazes are being treated as arson. Fire investigators and police were at the scenes today.

The attacks happened while pupils were on their Easter break. In both cases, rubbish bins in storage areas had been set ablaze.

At Annecy School the vandals also set alight to a Wendy House at the side of the main school hall. Windows and curtains in the school hall were destroyed.

At Seaford Head the boiler room was wrecked. The cost of the damage has been estimated at £15,000.

Premises manager Paul Lee said the school would be open again after the Easter break.

Leading Fire Fighter Michael Rigelsford was in one of the two appliances from Seaford responding to the 999 call.

He said: "We passed Annecy School and saw the flames and smoke from the back of the school. I thought we had been given the wrong address.

" We checked with control and they confirmed the call was to Seaford Head, so one appliance went on to Seaford and we stopped at the Annecy School and asked for assistance."

Station Officer Richard Fowler took charge at the Seaford Head blaze. He said: "Flames were going through the roof of the storage area when the first crew arrived."

Police officers were last night conducting house-to-house inquiries.

Seaford town and district councillor John James said: "We have had incidents of vandalism in the town, but we have not had any serious arson attacks before. Let us hope these are one-off incidents"