Residents had to be evacuated in the early hours after a flat in Dudley was ransacked and set on fire.

Eight people were told to leave the property in Stourbridge Road – which has been converted into 10 bedsits – after the fire broke out just after midnight.

They waited outside for about three hours while fire crews tackled the blaze.

Watch commander Mark Smith, from Dudley fire station, said the man who lives at the bedsit which was set on fire was away.

He said: “The property had been broken into and ransacked and then set on fire. It was one hundred per cent smoke damaged.

“The kitchen units and toilet facilities had all been smashed up.”

One of the flats was badly smoke logged and a man living there was told he could not return. Firefighters advised other residents to find alternative accommodation as the electrics had been turned off.

A resident, who did not want to be named, said: “Luckily there was no smoke damage to my flat.”

Police are investigating.