Arsonist strikes as family sleep upstairs

An arsonist set fire to a Black Country home today as a family slept upstairs. Bev Edwards and her children Morgan, aged 10, and eight-year-old Maddie escaped the blaze in Portobello with Miss Edwards's partner Anthony Pitts.

The mother-of-two said she feared she had lost "everything" as she revealed Mr Pitts raised the alarm after waking up at 1am.

The couple grabbed the two children and ran downstairs, passing the flames as they engulfed the front door and hallway of the property, in Alamein Road.

West Midlands Police spokeswoman Catherine Hickman said a 39-year-old local man had been arrested on suspicion of arson.