AN Asian family are living in fear of their lives after their car was torched in what they believe was a racially motivated attack outside their Cradley Heath home.

The arsonist was caught on camera and appeared to deliberately target the Renault Scenic, worth £2,500, belonging to father-of-three Rajesh Dua.

The car was set alight shortly before 1.30am just yards from the house in Mossvale Close as the family slept on Wednesday September 23.

Their recycling bin was destroyed in the blaze, which narrowly missed spreading to the garden fence attached to the kitchen wall.

The incident was captured on CCTV belonging to Old Hill Primary School opposite, which is now being examined by police.

Mr Dua, aged 44, whose wife Kanika Jalota, aged 38, is a teaching assistant at the school, said the arsonist walked passed other cars and studied the number plate of his vehicle before throwing something inside it to start the fire.

He said the CCTV footage showed him go across the street and smoke a cigarette before returning to the car to get the fire going better so that the petrol tank exploded.

Mr Dua, a self-employed food agent, bought the house for his family and moved in just over two months ago.

He came from India 15 years ago and said he had never had a problem before, but could not think of any other motive for the attack other than racism.

“It was not random, it was very deliberate and the man was there for nine or 10 minutes. It was an attempt at manslaughter,” he said, adding: “It was so close to the house – if the fence had caught it would have burned up to the kitchen and could have set the house on fire.”

The blaze scorched the tarmac road surface and the street light, leaving a daily reminder to the family of what happened.

He praised the fire service stopping the flames spreading, but the family was not woken because the car was still registered under their previous address.

Mr Dua said their children Ankush, aged 12, Rohan, aged 11 and Krisha, aged nine, were having difficulty sleeping and the whole family was frightened.

A West Midlands Police spokesman said: “At this stage this is an arson investigation, there is no suggestion on the crime report of any element of hate crime. “