A FAMILY had their home torched after enduring weeks of threats and harassment.

Christine Mortin said she and her three children had been left with nothing after the blaze at their home in New Hall Street, Burnley, in the early hours of Tuesday.

The home was torched by suspected arsonists just hours after the family were forced to flee because of the harassment.

Police told them to move out after thugs threw bottles through the downstairs windows cutting 11-year-old daughter Caroline James on the hand.

Unemployed Christine, 40, says she and children Richard James, 14, Caroline and Patricia James, six, could all have been killed if they had still been in the house when the fire broke out.

They are now living with relatives and said they had no idea why they were being targeted. The family say the suspected arson attack is the latest in a catalogue of threats and violence against them which have left them living in fear. Police are now investigating possible motives for the attack.

Det Sgt Dave Groombridge, of Pennine Police's Hate Crime Unit, said: "We are aware of a fire which is being treated as suspicious and which detectives are looking into.

"The family has also told us of the harassment incidents and they are part of out investigation."

Christine said: "Trouble started about five weeks ago and since then we have had nothing but bother.

"When the windows were put through on Sunday night it was too much and we had to move out.

"I didn't want to leave, but at the end of the day my children's safety comes first.

"The first we knew about the fire was when a friend came round to say the house was in flames.

"If we had been in there I'm sure we wouldn't have survived, the place was absolutely gutted. We would have been killed.

"I had been living there for seven years and never had any trouble before this and now me and my children have been left with nothing but the clothes we stand up in. All we want is to be able to live in peace."