A FATAL house fire in Heaton that left three people dead may have been a murder-suicide, detectives believe.

Police are investigating the possibility that one of the deceased started the fire with the intent of killing themselves or the other inhabitants.

A police spokesman said: “We cannot rule out that the fire was started to kill the people in the house.

“That is one line of inquiry we are pursuing at the moment.”

The blaze, at Albert Road West in the early hours of Monday morning, is believed to have killed an Iranian couple — named locally as Hassan and Mahnaz Rafie — and the woman's elderly mother.

It is understood that police are finding it hard to formally identify the victims given the severity of their burns, and may ultimately be forced to rely on dental records.


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