LONDON, Nov 1: Five members of a Muslim family -- the mother and four daughters -- were killed in a `suspicious’ fire at their home in England which also left the father critically ill, emergency services said on Wednesday.

The bodies of the 39-year-old woman and the four girls, aged between three and 16, were recovered in the early hours of the morning after the blaze in an end-of-terrace house in Accrington, north-western England, a spokesman said.

Lancashire Police confirmed they had launched a murder inquiry and the fire was being treated as deliberate.

A spokesman added that the house was locked from the inside when the fire broke out, apparently started by flammable material in a number of places.

“Early indications are that whoever set the fire, and carried out some other suspicious activity I can't go into at this stage, did not leave the premises,” said Detective Superintendent Mick Gradwell, heading the inquiry.

The father is in a critical condition in the specialist burns unit at Manchester's Wythenshawe Hospital. A fifth child in the family was reported to be in hospital receiving treatment for leukaemia.—AFP