Police seek youth over fatal fire

Local residents have been ruled out of the inquiry into the fire, police say. Photo / Martin Sykes

Police are keen to track down a youth spotted near the scene of a fatal house fire in Christchurch early yesterday.

A 38-year-old woman and her six-year-old daughter died in the fire at their home in Avalon St, Richmond, about 12.45am yesterday. Police are treating the blaze as suspicious.

Neighbours reporting seeing a young man near the property shortly before fire broke out.

He is described as Maori, in his early teens, possibly wearing a red hoodie or t-shirt.

The officer in charge of the inquiry, Detective Senior Sergeant David Harvey, said the mother and daughter lived with others who were not in the house when the fire started.

The residents had been interviewed and ruled out of the inquiry, he told Radio New Zealand.

Mr Harvey said the victims' names would not be released until formal identification and post mortems had been completed later today.

Forensic examination of the house was also likely to be wrapped up today, confirming whether or not the fire was deliberately lit.

Investigators said a house fire which broke out in Tancred St, Linwood, shortly after the Richmond fire was not linked.

The Linwood fire appeared to have started from an electrical fault.

- NZPA