Sheffield incident: four rescued children released from hospital

Four children rescued from a house in Sheffield where two boys died on Friday have been released from hospital, South Yorkshire police have said.

Two teenage boys, aged 13 and 14, were taken to hospital but could not be saved after an incident at an address in the Shiregreen area. A 37-year-old man and a 34-year-old woman were arrested on suspicion of murder in connection with the incident, police said.

Police confirmed that four children, aged 11, 10, three, and seven months, had been conscious in hospital in a non-life-threatening condition.

Officers were called to a semi-detached house in Shiregreen at about 7.30am on Friday, and later made two arrests. The pair remained in custody on Saturday. Police said they were not looking for anyone else in connection with the deaths.

Detectives have given no indication about the nature of the incident, but have confirmed it was not a shooting and that it was confined to one property.

The boys’ cause of death has not yet been established. Police said postmortems were due to take place on Friday, but details were slow to emerge.

Speaking at the scene on Friday, Supt Paul McCurry said: “They are conscious. They are being given the necessary care that they need. And they will be in hospital for certainly the next few hours. I am aware of wider speculation regarding the use of weapons. At the moment there is no wider risk to the community in Sheffield.”

People living nearby saw more than a dozen police cars and four ambulances arrive on the tree-lined road and an air ambulance land in the grounds of Hartley Brook primary academy, 100 metres from the scene.