Two held over fatal hotel blaze

In January police revealed the fire was started deliberately

Police in Cornwall investigating a fatal fire at a Cornish hotel last year have arrested two people.

A 42-year-old man and 36-year-old woman were arrested on Tuesday in connection with the fire at the Penhallow Hotel in Newquay last August.

They are in custody at Newquay Police Station. In January police revealed the fire was started deliberately.

Joan Harper, 80, Peter Hughes, 43, and his mother Monica, 86, of Staffordshire, died in the blaze.

Up to 90 people were forced to escape from the fire, which police said was the worst in the county for 30 years.

Two men, aged 21 and 44, were arrested on suspicion of murder in January were released on bail until June.

Holidaymaker Mr Hughes, of Cheslyn Hay, Staffordshire, died trying to rescue his mother, Monica, from the fire.

Ms Harper, from Stoke-on-Trent, was also on holiday in the resort, when she was fatally injured in the blaze.

In January detectives announced the fatalities were being treated as murder after painstaking inquiries by fire service investigators and independent experts established the fire was started deliberately.