'Serious' house fire in Withington leaves two dead and four children injured

A man and a woman have died following a fire at a house in Manchester in which four children and another male were also injured. Firefighters were called to the blaze in on Parsonage Road in Withington at around 2:20am.

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) extinguished the fire. Three girls and one boy aged between 10 and 17 were treated for their injuries.

A man, age unknown, was also taken to hospital and he remains in a serious condition.

Police said the man and a woman died at the scene of the blaze. Their next-of-kin have been informed but formal identification and post-mortems are yet to take place.

A joint investigation between Greater Manchester Police and GMFRS has been launched to establish the cause of the fire.

Detective Inspector Tony Lea of GMP's City of Manchester Team said: "My thoughts are with the family of the man and woman after such a tragic incident and we have specially-trained officers supporting the family at this time.

"We are continuing to work closely with GMFRS to establish exactly how this fire started and I urge anyone who may have witnessed the fire, or anyone in the area in the hours before the fire.
If you have any information at all contact police as soon as possible so we can piece together what happened."

Chairman of Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Authority, Councillor David Acton, said: "It is with great sadness that we hear of the loss of two lives following a house fire in Manchester early this morning. Our thoughts are with the family members of the man and woman at this awful time.

"Our firefighters did a great job in tackling the house fire, which was well alight when they arrived, so praise must go to them for dealing with this difficult and extremely sad incident.

"Fire investigators are now working with the police to establish the cause of the blaze and are likely to remain in the area over the weekend."

Anyone with information is asked to contact police on 101 quoting incident number 140 10/02/17 or the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.