AN INVESTIGATION is underway after one of Hampshire’s most ancient coastal forts was targeted by arsonists yet again last night.

Firefighters were called to Fort Gilkicker at about 6.30pm after someone saw smoke billowing from one of the rooms of the abandoned Victorian fort.

One crew from Gosport Fire Station was initially called to Stokes Bay but had to get a Land Rover unit from Fareham Fire Station to help them put out the fire because of the access road to the site.

A spokesman from Gosport Fire Station said timber and rubbish had been piled up in one of the rooms and set on fire.

Using water backpacks they controlled the fire before the smaller appliance arrived about an hour later.

No one was injured in the incident and there was damage to floorboards.

The spokesman added arson was the cause and that Hampshire police were investigating.

In March this year arsonists set fire to rubbish in one of the rooms in the fort, which was built in the 1860s.