A SMART new half-a-million-pound technology block has risen from the ashes at a Hampshire school.

Five months after the old technology labs at Henry Cort Community School, in Fareham, were reduced to rubble in a blaze, a new state-of-the-art technology department has opened at the school.

Equipped with dozens of computers, vacuum forming machines and a laser cutter, the £500,000 building was funded by Hampshire County Council as well as a contribution from the school.

Fire broke out in the former technology rooms on June 23 following an arson attack. Police are still investigating.