'The kids could have died..How can somebody be so mean?'

A WOMAN whose terrified kids were caught up in the Halloween arson attack on an asylum seeker centre said they were lucky to survive it.

- BY NICOLA DONNELLY, MICHAEL O'TOOLE and JOHN KIERANS

The mum said “the children could have died”, as gardai continued a major probe into the arson attack on the property in the centre of Drogheda, Co Louth, on Friday night.

The woman, who is from Ghana, told RTE News she was outside the building waiting for her children, aged eight and 12, to be rescued.

She asked: “How can somebody be so mean?”

The woman and her family are now in temporary accommodation. The attack has left 28 people homeless.

A security review of all IPAS centres will take place speedily, the Minister of State for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration has said.

Speaking on RTE's This Week programme, Colm Brophy said safety was the utmost concern and all centres would be reviewed as soon as possible.

He said it was a “truly shocking crime” and the video he had seen was “truly shocking” and the placing of accelerant on a stairway would have serious implications for people trying to escape.

Gardai were last night trying to establish if the arson attack was racially motivated - or was related to a grudge against someone once connected to the building.

But a source added: “There is nothing to say at this stage that it is not to do with it being an IPAS site.” We revealed shock video footage yesterday of the sick attack - in which victims were lucky to get out alive.

Several people, including four children, had to be rescued from the burning building - set on fire by a thug who doused the property's stairs in petrol before setting them alight.