A GANG of teenagers were caught hiding in a school's grounds as a fire destoryed a nearby Caversham home yesterday evening.

Police and fire engines were called to Oakley Road at 7.52pm as a fire tore through an empty home.

Martial artists, preparing to teach a class in nearby Hemdean School, saw four youngsters hiding in the bushes just before the emergency services arrived on the scene.

The house, which is currently being renovated, was empty when the fire broke out.

Mark Crane of Reading Combat Krav Magra, along with three other instructors, were setting for their weekly class in the Hemdean Road school.

“We saw four kids hiding in the grounds,” he said. “We thought 'what are they doing' and went outside.

“They ran and we chased them. Then we noticed the alarms, the smoke and the fire engines.”

Three ran up the hill and disappeared down an alleyway of Hemdean Hill. The other split off from his friends.

The martial artists chased them as fire engines tore past to put out the fire.

They trapped two of the teenagers in the alleyway but without a phone or way of contacting the police the teens escaped.

Nobody was hurt during the fire.

Katerina Fuzesi owns the property with her husband Steve and said they had been told the damage was extensive. They live nearby and spent the summer renovating it to rent out.

“Normally we would have been there,” she said. “It was only a lucky chance. Any other day we would have been there but tonight we got caught up in things.

“We are there a lot of the time, my husband’s often there till midnight.

"I think if he’d been there it wouldn’t have happened.

“We’ve been told the fire started at the back and we should prepare ourselves for a shock.

“It’s such a shame, it’s a lovely house.”

Thames Valley Police and four fire engines from Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service were called to the scene just before 8pm.

Oakley Road was shut between the junction with Blenheim Road and Kidmore Road.

Crew manager Tim Furneaux at Caversham Road fire station said a crew from Oxfordshire, along with Dee Road, and Wokingham Road attended the inferno.

He said: "It had competley flashed over when we got there. There was quite a lot of fire damage.

"Everything that was in the house reached a certain tempareture and even if it's not alight it goes up.

"The fire was fully developed when we got there. It started to the rear of the property on the ground floor."

The firefighters were on the scene from 7.45pm till 1.30am.

The road has reopened.