SYDNEY (AFP) – Australian authorities have accused a Sydney father of trying to stop rescuers from saving his own family in a “horrifying” home fire that killed two boys and a baby girl.
Flames engulfed the home in western Sydney’s Lalor Park in the early hours of Sunday morning while the 28-year-old man, his female partner and seven children were inside, New South Wales state police said.
Three children – two boys aged three and six, and a 10-month-old girl – were killed.
The four other children aged between four and 11 and their mother, 29, were being treated at hospital for fire-related injuries but were all expected to recover, police said.
“This is a horrifying and senseless act that has quite rightly outraged the entire state,” New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said yesterday. “These children deserved a loving home with safety and security, and instead they are gone.”
Police said the three deaths were being investigated as a domestic-related multiple homicide.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has described domestic violence in Australia as a “national crisis” following a spike in the number of violent deaths of women this year and a series of high-profile attacks.
