An Indian-origin family was forced to flee their home in the UK after it was targeted in an arson attack which the police on Wednesday treated as a "hate crime".

Mayour Karlekar, 43, said his wife and two kids suffered a "near death experience" when they woke up to a fire roaring outside the front door of their house in southeast London's Borkwood Park area of Orpington during the weekend, News Shopper daily reported.