Arson house girl, 6, identified

Alisha was trapped in room where the fire was particularly fierce

Police have identified the six-year-old girl who died in an arson attack on her Birmingham home.

Alisha Begum was trapped in the house on Bayswater Road, Perry Barr, after two men threw petrol through the front door on Friday following a disturbance.

Her mother and four siblings managed to jump to safety from a first floor window. They received minor injuries.

Detectives are treating the death as murder and are linking the fire with an earlier incident at the house.

The children are aged between five and their late teens.

It is thought their father returned from abroad this weekend, after the incident happened.

'Callous and brutal'

West Midlands Police said the two Asian men, wearing dark clothes, burst into the house at 2345 GMT on Friday and threw a substance, believed to be petrol, into the property.

The men, thought to be accompanied by others, then fled.

The family were forced to jump from a first floor window

Alisha was taken to Birmingham Children's Hospital, but died at about 1925 GMT on Saturday.

Detective Inspector Paul Hughes appealed for the help of local residents to catch the people responsible.

He said: "It is a callous and brutal attack and somebody must know something.

"We've a large number of CCTV inquires and house to house inquiries to continue.

"At the moment there are a number of possibilities which we will be looking in to. There is no clear motive at this stage."