Two people have charged with murder after a house fire killed three children in Salford.

Siblings Demi Pearson, 14, Brandon, eight, and Lacie, seven, died in the fire at the terraced house in Jackson Street in Walkden in the early hours of Monday morning.

Their mother Michelle, 35, and sister Lia, three, remain in hospital. Two 16-year-old boys managed to get out. 

Zac Bolland, 23, and Courtney Brierley, 20, both of Worsley, Salford, were each charged with three counts of murder, four counts of attempted murder and one count of arson with intent to endanger life.

They are due in Manchester and Salford Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday morning.

Demi Pearson was pronounced dead at the scene and her eight-year-old brother Brandon and seven-year-old sister Lacie later died in hospital.

Photos of the children killed emerged on Tuesday, as tributes poured in on social media.

The Manchester Evening News reported one of the 16-year-olds who escaped was their brother Kyle Pearson.

He told the paper: “I fell asleep and the next thing I knew was I could hear my mum screaming ‘fire!’. There was lots of smoke so I climbed out of an upstairs window.

“I’ve gone to get back in but a cloud of smoke hit me in the face. I tried to break the front door down and smashed a window, but I couldn’t get in because of the flames and the smoke. I can’t get my head around it.”