Two children and father killed in house fire

LONDON, June 4 (Reuters) A 59-year-old man has been arrested after a father and two young children died in a house fire in Devon, police said today.

Fire fighters were called to the burning home in North Tawton at 1810 IST but could not save the victims, an 8-year old boy, his 4-year-old sister and their 34-year-old father.

Devon and Cornwall Police said they were treating the fire and the deaths as suspicious but were keeping an open mind as to how the blaze started.

The children's mother and her youngest child, a three-year-old boy, were not at home at the time of the fire.

A police spokesman said the mother was ''traumatised'' and was now with police.

The arrested man, from west Devon, was taken into custody shortly before 0830 IST.

REUTERS AE ND1854