FLAMES and smoke rose spectacularly from a Broads cruiser which sank after it was gutted in a suspected arson attack this week.The smouldering wreck of Lucky Lady disappeared beneath the River Bure in Great Yarmouth after firefighters had battled for almost an hour to put out the blaze on Sunday night.

FLAMES and smoke rose spectacularly from a Broads cruiser which sank after it was gutted in a suspected arson attack this week.

The smouldering wreck of Lucky Lady disappeared beneath the River Bure in Great Yarmouth after firefighters had battled for almost an hour to put out the blaze on Sunday night.

Police were called to the scene just after 8pm by Yarmouth Coastguard and are treating the fire as arson.

One theory is that the boat may have been set alight by a tramp believed to have been living on board.

The dramatic picture above shows the fire ripping through the cruiser that had been moored by North Quay.

The Lucky Lady's engine had been left on, but nobody was on board at the time and no other boats were damaged.

Two crews and the fire service rescue boat were called out to deal with the blaze, close to the White Swan pub.

Eyewitness Jemma-Louisa Dalley, who caught the scene on camera, was driving over Haven Bridge when she saw the boat on fire.

“By the time we got round to North Quay the fire had really got hold of the boat and two fire engines had arrived within a couple of minutes of us getting there,” she said.

“There was no-one in the boat but the engine had been left running; it seemed like the fire was under control, but when the roof was taken off the flames shot up again.”

The wrecked boat met a watery grave around 9.30pm, about 45 minutes after the blaze had been put out.

A crowd of onlookers had gathered at the scene and staff at the White Swan pub provided drinks to firefighters once the blaze was under control.