UK police launch murder hunt as girl killed in fire

UK police launch murder hunt as girl killed in fire

THE FIRE THAT KILLED DUMO

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By Staff Reporter

THE death of a six-year-old Zimbabwean girl in a house fire in West Sussex, England, is now being treated as murder.

Police said the fire on 26 October in Pound Hill, Crawley, in which Dumoluhle Sibanda died, was started deliberately as an accelerant has been discovered.

They want to speak to a 34-year-old man seen buying petrol at Tesco in Three Bridges just before the fire.

Dumoluhle's father tried to rescue her from the house in Banks Road but was driven back by smoke and flames.

Det Ch Insp Tony O'Donnell, who is in charge of the case, said: "Further forensic examination at the scene has revealed the presence of an accelerant - believed to petrol - close to the seat of the fire.

"As a result there is now little doubt that the fire was started deliberately, and because of that fire an innocent child has died. This has therefore become a murder investigation.

"We have received information about a man acting suspiciously in the early hours of last Tuesday morning, before the fire started."

He said they also wanted to speak to anyone who saw anything in the area of St Mary's Drive or Banks Road between 0300 and 0330 GMT on the night of the fire.

Dumoluhle had moved to Britain from Zimbabwe last year.

The day after the fire her uncle, Beki Mhlanga, said: "Everyone is devastated, we're still trying to come to terms with what's happened."
BBC
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