Four children of Shikatebeta village of Chieftainess Mpanshya’s area in Rufunsa District have been burnt to death when a grass thatched house they were sleeping in was set ablaze by a suspected lover of their grandmother.
Rufunsa District Commissioner, Judith Chama who rushed to the scene in a company of Council Chairman, Bartholomew Kalambalala, Council Secretary, Mwape Katemwe and Chieftainess Mpanshya expressed shock at the untimely death of the four children who were burnt to death in a fire which started around 01:00 hours on Monday.
Mrs. Chama said the four children, three male and one female aged between 15 and 8 years were burnt to death in a suspected arson case and police have apprehended two suspects who happen to be the lovers of the grandmother of the deceased children.
Mrs. Chama said the fire started around 01:00 hours and the grandmother and one boy escaped from the burning house while the other four burnt to death.
According to the neighbourhood watch members in the area the fire is suspected to have been set by one of the young lovers of the grandmother’s children.
The neighbourhood members said the grandmother of the deceased children who is in her late fifties was dating two young men who are in their late thirties and one of them is suspected to have set the house on fire wanting to kill the woman and the man.
By press time police had already picked the two suspected lovers and the grandmother of the deceased children who are now in police custody.
Meanwhile, the four burnt bodies of the children, three male and one female, were taken to Mpanshya’s St. Luke’s mission hospital mortuary awaiting post mortem.
