Firefighters from Ely and Littleport were called out late last night (Thursday) to battle a large haystack fire, believed to have been started by arsonists.

The fire took hold in a field, off Main Street, shortly before 11.30pm.

When crews arrived they discovered two stacks of hay alight about 200m apart from one another in fields on either side of a road.

One stack looked to have been burning for a number of hours while only a small section of the other stack was alight.

Fire crews spent two hours monitoring the stack fires and did not engage in any firefighting action.

They left the scene at 2.10am.

At 7.45am this morning (Friday) a crew from Ely returned and remained at the scene to monitor the fires as they burned out.

The cause of the fire was deliberate. Anyone with information should contact the police on 101 or the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.