A mother and her three-year-old child died in a mysterious flat fire in Earlsfield on Friday night.

Tara Mallon, 35, and her daughter Phoebe Tuck, were found in the bedroom of a burnt-out flat in Willow Tree Close after a fire started at around 7.30pm.

Police said they were not treating the fire as suspicious, but confirmed there was a fire at the same address last year.

No arrests have been made and police are keeping an open mind as to the cause.

Detective Superintendent Michael McNally from Wandsworth Police said: “I'm led to believe from neighbours that it was quite a quick fire.

“For me at the moment I need to establish the cause of the fire and I need to identify the two bodies that were found.”

Firefighters were called by neighbours at 7.24pm to the four-room second-floor flat.

It took an hour to extinguish the fire, which destroyed about 25 per cent of the property, and the victims were pronounced dead at the scene.

There were rumours that firefighters had trouble getting into the flat because a bed had been pushed up against the door, but police would not comment on this.

A 32-year-old neighbour said: “The lady living below them came over here. She heard a lot of crashing above her.

“She thought that maybe they were fighting, or the child was throwing things on the floor. She looked out the back and saw an orange glow and cinders. Then she called the police.”

Another neighbour, 25, said the girl's father drive back in his Mercedes at about 11pm that night, and was met by police.

She said: “They took his keys out of the ignition and told him the news. He was just shocked. He just crouched down.”

He is now helping police with their inquiries as a witness.

It is understood the couple, who are in their early thirties, lived in the three-storey block of flats for two years.

After visiting the flat, Tooting MP Sadiq Khan said: “The scene was shocking. The windows were smashed and the outside of the property was all blacked due to the smoke.

“It is really upsetting that two people so young have died as a result of this fire. My thoughts and prayers are with them and their family and friends.”

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