THE future of Apex Mill is 'up in the air' following a major blaze.

Around 25 firefighters from across East Lancashire battled the inferno on Tuesday night.

Flames could be seen coming from the top of the building so an aerial platform ladder was used to tackle it from above.

A mobile fire station from Lancaster was also set up near the scene on the corner of Bold Street and Randal Street, Blackburn.

The building is owned by the Adhan Group of Companies, which is one of the most successful privately owned property development and investment companies in the UK. Mushtaq Khanjra, from the group, said loss assessors would visit the mill today.

He said: “It's a big headache for us. We are just trying to find out what happened.

“We've had break ins there before but never anything like this. This is the worst thing that has ever happened. We have boarded the building up and are waiting for the fire brigade to come back to us.

“We have got outline planning permission for retail but it's all up in the air at the moment.”

He blasted yobs who threw stones at another crew on the same night.

He said: “The fire crews do a job to save peoples' lives. These idiots should be locked up. It gets worse with the school holidays coming up.”