POLICE officers investigating the deaths of a woman and girl in Reedley have been given extra time to question a man arrested on suspicion of their murders.

The 51-year-old man, from Burnley, was arrested on suspicion of two counts of murder, two of rape and one of arson with intent to endanger life following the deaths of Dr Saman Mir Sacharvi, 49, and her 14-year-old daughter, Vian Mangrio.

Detective Superintendent Jon Holmes, Head of Major Crime at Lancashire Police, has now commented on the current state of the case.

He said: “Our thoughts remain with Saman and Vian’s family and we have specially-trained officers supporting them at this awful time.

“On Sunday we arrested two men and one has since been released.

“The second man remains in custody and today we have been granted more time to question him.”

The bodies of Dr Sacharvi and Miss Mangrio were first found at an address on Colne Road, Reedley, on Thursday October 1st.

There was also evidence of smoke and fire damage inside the address.

A Home Office post-mortem on Saturday revealed Dr Sacharvi died as a result of pressure to the neck. She had also suffered an assault.

The second body has yet to be formally identified but is believed to be Miss Mangrio. The post-mortem investigation remains ongoing for her, so we cannot give a cause of death, though we can confirm she was found badly burnt inside the address.

Today (Tuesday, October 6th) officers have been granted a Warrant of Further Detention which allows them to keep the arrested man in custody for questioning for an additional 36 hours.

Yesterday a second man who had been arrested on suspicion of the same offences was released without charge.

Detective Superintendent Holmes said: “We are continuing to ask anybody with information about this incident to get in touch with us.

“If you were in the area and saw something suspicion, think you have dashcam or CCTV from the area or have any other information, we would ask you to contact us straight away.”