STAFF and customers fled in panic after schoolboys set two shops ablaze in Kidderminster, a 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 the bin lid.

The burning bin was then pushed against the wall of the first shop.

Zoe Walker and Julia Maddox, who were working in the shop on Stourport Road, at first feared they would be unable to escape, said William Rickarby, prosecuting.

But no-one was hurt though the fire spread to the fish shop where other people were working on February 17 last year.

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.

But instead he gave the older boy, now 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-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.

Lost profit due to temporary closure was estimated at £40,000. The fish bar suffered £2,500 damage.