Hunt for killer of mum and two children

LONDON, July 13 (Reuters) Greater Manchester Police said they had launched a multiple murder inquiry today after the bodies of three people, two women and a boy thought to be related, were discovered in a house.

Officers were called to the house in the Fallowfield area of Manchester at about 7 pm (local time) yesterday after a member of the public reported that there was a dead woman there.

Police found the bodies of a woman, believed to be about 35, an 18-year-old woman and a boy, thought to be 13, at the scene. All three bodies had serious head injuries and the deaths are being treated as suspicious.'' Superintendent Paul Savill said the victims were believed to be members of the same family but had not yet been formally identified.

Media reports named them as Beverley Samuels and her daughter Kesha Wizzart and son Fred.

''We've got strong lines of inquiry,'' Savill said. ''Those positive lines of inquiry, for the integrity of the investigation, are something I won't allude to at this time.'' He said they did not have any evidence of a ''wider threat to the community'' but said additional police patrols would be operating in the area.

However, the deaths are not thought to be gang-related.

Sky News reported that a relative of the dead mother had gone to the house to lay a wreath.

The woman, who would not give her name, said: ''The children were perfect, they were all perfect. They were a perfect family, they were great.'' Neighbours living near the red-brick, terraced house said they were shocked at the news.

''This is a very quiet neighbourhood and to think that something like this could happen really is unnerving,'' one neighbour told the BBC.

''If this could happen to a nice family like that, are any of us actually safe in our own homes?'' REUTERS ARB RAI2123