Two young children are being treated in hospital for serious burns following a suspected arson attack in Limerick city yesterday.
A four-year-old boy and a six-year-old girl were transferred by ambulance to the burns unit of Crumlin children's hospital in Dublin last night following an incident at 2pm outside a house in Pineview Gardens, Moyross. The children were in the back of a parked car when a fire broke out which destroyed the rear of the vehicle.
According to locals, a petrol bomb was thrown into the back of the car after the children's mother, who was calling to a house in the area, had refused to give a man a lift.
However, gardaí insisted last night that it was still "very early in their investigations" and a senior source described reports of a petrol bomb as "speculation".
"We are still trying to ascertain how this fire was started and it's very early in the investigation," said the spokesman. "It could have been a case that the fire started as a result of an electrical fault," said another source.
The victims were taken by ambulance to the Mid-Western Regional Hospital but were transferred last night to the special burns unit in Crumlin.They suffered serious injuries to their heads and upper body areas, according to gardaí.
