YORK police are investigating an arson attack at a business in York city centre yesterday afternoon.

Crews were called to Camera Mart in Church Street at about 2.25pm after a fire was started on the stairs, which leads from the street up to a hairdressing business on the first floor.

The blaze was quickly extinguished before crews arrived and a spokesman for the fire service confirmed that it had been started deliberately on the carpet on the stairs.

According to Garry Hodgson, manager of Camera Mart, which owns the lease on the entire building, the fire alarm system did its job and nobody was hurt.

He said: "There was an incident on the stairs. There is now a mark on the carpet where somebody tried to set fire to it.

"No one was hurt, but, obviously, it was not a nice thing to happen."

Updated: 10:37 Saturday, May 25, 2002