MURDER detectives are investigating an arson in which a teenage girl and her grandmother died in East London early yesterday in the night. Shannen Vickers, 17, and her 57-year-old gran, Pauline Adams (pictured), were overcome by smoke in their sleep when the fire swept through their home at Malmesbury House in Cyprus Street, Bethnal Green, at 5.45am Sunday

PICTURE: JOE LORD

Report: Mike Brooke

MURDER detectives are investigating an arson in which a teenage girl and her grandmother died in East London early yesterday in the night.

The girl, 17-year-old Shannen Vickers, and her gran, 57-year-old Pauline Adams, were overcome by smoke in their sleep when the fire was started at their home on the fifth floor of Malmesbury House block of flats in Cyprus Street, Bethnal Green, at 5.45am yesterday.

Police have put up murder posters appealling for witnesses to the double tragedy.

The entire flat was filled with smoke when rescue crews got their from Bethnal Breen, Bow and Homerton fire stations.

They found the bodies of the two women in a rear bedroom of the three-bedroom flat. The women died from smoke inhalation.

The fire started just a few feet form the front door of the flat.

Post-mortem examinations are being held at the Royal London Hospital mortuary in Whitechapel later today (Monday).

TWO HELD

An incident room has opened at Barking under Det Chief Ins Mark Kandiah of the Homicide & Serious Crime Command.

A 19-year-old youth handed himself in at an East London police station yesterday, where he was arrested and currently remains in custody, Scotland Yard said this morning.

Then shortly before midnight a second youth, aged 18, was arrested at Harlow in Essex. He was brought to East London to a separate police station where he also remains in custody.

Detectives are appealing for people who may have seen anyone acting suspiciously in the area around the seven-storey Malmesbury House in Cyprus Street, or who have information, to call 020 8345 1585, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800-555111.