THE cause of a devastating fire which engulfed an indoor play area at a holiday park is still unknown.

Firefighters from Dovercourt, Clacton, Manningtree and Colchester tackled a blaze at Dovercourt Holiday Park, in Low Road, last Thursday morning.

On arrival, crews found half of a building in the park was ablaze.

They managed to extinguish the fire within an hour, and no-one was hurt.

But the building, which is used as a play area was completely destroyed by the flames.

An investigation into the cause if the fire was subsequently carried out.

A spokesman for the fire service said: "A fire investigation to establish the cause of the fire found it was caused accidental of deliberately, both possibilities."

The soft play centre reopened in line with Government guidelines on May 17 after a devastating year for the industry.

It will now remain closed at a critical time as children break up for the summer holidays.

Harwich town mayor Ivan Henderson said the incident was “really sad”.

He added: “That holiday park has invested a lot of money into its site and it has been really good to see it becoming a huge part of Dovercourt’s attraction to tourists.

“It has created a lot of local jobs too.

“It’s such bad news to hear what has happened and we can only hope everyone is safe and no one has been injured in the fire.

“I’m really sad to hear such a large part of the camp’s investment has been destroyed.”