A family has been left devastated after an arson attack killed five of their pets.

The chinchillas died when the shed they were housed in was destroyed by fire.

The Smith family, of Bullamoor Close, in Northallerton, used to breed the animals as a hobby, giving the babies away to friends.

They stopped breeding two years ago and kept the five remaining chinchillas, called Katie, Dexter, Holly and The Two Boys, as their pets.

During the winter months the animals stayed in the house, where they could roam free.

In the summer, they were transferred to the shed at the bottom of the garden where they had their own run.

Father-of-four Andrew Smith, 46, said: "All the children used to play with them. They were like part of the family."

The arson attack came in the early hours of Saturday .

Mr Smith was woken by his wife Susan, 40, after neighbours alerted the family and called the fire service.

"I grabbed my swimming trunks as they were the closest thing to hand and I dashed outside," said Mr Smith, a former driver who no longer works because of ill-health.

"One shed was already burnt out and the other was already well ablaze.

"That was where the chinchillas were and we couldn't do anything to save them."

He praised the firefighters saying "The fire brigade was magnificent.

"They were here very quickly and soon managed to put out the flames - but there was nothing that could be done for our pets and they were burnt to death."

He said his children Emma, 13, Richard, 15, Peter, 16, and Matthew, 18, were left distraught by the incident.

"We just don't know why anybody would want to do a thing like this," Mr Smith said.

A fire service spokesman confirmed the cause of the blaze was suspicious. He said: "We are treating the cause as deliberate and we are investigating."