A Pakistani mother and her three children died in a house fire in northwestern London early Saturday morning. A man was arrested for suspicion of murder, police said.
The fire broke out around 01:20 BST in two adjacent terraces houses on Tillett Close in the Stonebridge region in Brent. Emergency services have arrived to find the two seriously damaged properties.
The victims were identified as a 43 -year -old woman and her three children – a 15 -year -old girl and two boys aged eight and four. All four were declared dead on the scene.
Police confirmed that the woman was the mother of the three children.
According to the BBC, two other members of the same family – a woman in the 70 years and a teenager – were also in the house and were taken to the hospital. Their conditions were not made public.
Metropolitan police said that a 41 -year -old man had been arrested outside the property suspected of murder. He remains in detention. The family was of Pakistani origin and had lived in the United Kingdom for more than 20 years, neighbors at the BBC told.
Eight firefighters and around 70 firefighters from Wembley, Park Royal and Willesden responded to the fire. They fought the fire for several hours before it was mastered.
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined. Fire investigators and homicide detectives work jointly on the case.
The neighbor Mohamed Labidi, 38, a teacher who lives in the same street, told the AP news agency that he had been devastated by the loss.
“I couldn’t even look at home,” he said. “They were good people. We used to socialize together. The children were always polite. It’s heartbreaking.”
Another resident told the BBC that she had heard shouting and breaking the glass and going out to see the property next to fire.
