STAFF and customers fled in panic after schoolboys set two shops ablaze in Kidderminster, Worcester Crown Court heard.

The fire costing nearly £400,000 began in Dillons One-Stop Shop and spread to the Foley Fish Bar next door.

A 13-year-old boy began the inferno by setting fire to rubbish in a bin after a 10-year-old lifted its lid. The bin was then pushed against the shop wall.

Zoe Walker and Julia Maddox, who were working in the One-Stop Shop in Stourport Road, Kidderminster, at first feared they would be unable to escape because an electrical door would lock, said William Rickarby, prosecuting.

The fire spread through the roof space to the fish shop where other people were working on February 17, last year. No one was hurt.

The boys, who cannot be named, pleaded guilty to arson while reckless whether life was endangered.

Mr Justice Morland said if the boys had been older he would have given them custodial sentences.

Instead he gave the older boy, now aged 14, a three-year supervision order with a condition he live for six months in accommodation provided by the local authority.

The younger boy, now 11, was also given three years' supervision with a 9pm to 7am curfew.

Mr Rickarby said the elder boy had obtained a lighter from his brother and started a small fire on a doorstep of a house and another in a bush. He then boasted he was going to burn a shop.

The One-Stop Shop suffered £250,000 damage and lost stock worth £100,000. They also estimated a lost profit due to closure for a time of £40,000. The fish bar had damage amounting to £2,500.

Mr Rickarby said it took the fire bridage three hours to put the blaze out. One boy was identified from a shop security video.

The elder boy claimed he had been at home watching TV at the time of the fire. But his accomplice told police what happened.

Ebrahim Mooncey, for the 14-year-old, said he had the mental age of a boy of nine and an IQ of only 67.

"He has had an appalling past," he added.