A fire tore through a former gospel hall on the Shankill Road early on Saturday, gutting the building and triggering a police inquiry into what officers are treating as a racially motivated arson attack.

Firefighters were called to the scene just after 2.45am, forced entry into the building and used a drone and jets to tackle the blaze. No injuries were reported, but the damage was total and the roof had been deliberately ignited, the fire service said when police arrived.

The attack has cut across plans to bring a derelict site back into use. Brian Kingston said the building had been bought by an Indian couple who had lived in London for many years and now live in Northern Ireland, with plans to open a supermarket selling Indian foods, vegetables, rices and spices, but not meat. He said the couple were legitimate business people and that the project would have brought jobs to the local community.

Kingston said the former Gospel Hall had closed five years ago and had stood unused since then. He said misinformation had been deliberately spread on social media and had stirred up opposition, adding that those behind it bore considerable responsibility for what had happened. “This is an appalling crime, which the police are treating as arson, and as having a race hate motive,” he said.

The PSNI said it had begun enquiries with a police presence in the area on Saturday and that hate-related crimes require an enhanced level of supervision, investigation and support for victims. Kingston said he had been liaising with the owner, police, Belfast City Council and the Housing Executive to have the building secured. For now, the unanswered question is who set the fire and what evidence police have that led them to treat it as race hate motivated.