Police in Leicester have formally identified two of the children who died in a suspected arson attack on a house in the city on Thursday morning.

Kimberly Harcourt, 2, and her three-year-old sister Kelly were killed in the fire. A 28-year-old woman and two other children also died.

Earlier, a man was released without charge after being questioned by police investigating the blaze.

Police and fire investigators spent Thursday sifting through the charred remains of the semi-detached council home in Bendbow Rise, in the Braunstone district of the city.

A neighbour brings a floral tribute to the house

Neighbours who tried to reach the family were beaten back by intense heat and flames which reduced the inside of the house to bare bricks.

Fire crews wearing breathing apparatus rescued the two youngest children from an upstairs room but they were dead on arrival at the Leicester Royal Infirmary.

Divisional Officer John Freeman said: "The firefighters were up against temperatures in excess of 400 or 500 degrees centigrade. The plaster is off the walls and the bricks are scorched."

Neighbours of the dead woman described her as "happy-go-lucky" and said she lived for her children.

The heat was so intense it removed the plaster from the walls

One said: "Nobody could have got in. There was nothing they could have done. This hasn't sunk in yet. I am still expecting her to call me and come running over."

The blaze broke out around 4am on Thursday morning completely engulfing both floors. Twenty firefighters tackled the blaze, which broke out on the ground floor.

A man was arrested nearby and spent most of Thursday being questioned by detectives at Hinckley police station.

But at around 9.30pm he was released without charge on police bail.
 

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