“Suspicions were raised after we received preliminary information. As a result the Civil Defense helped with the criminal investigation, inspected the fire site and took fingerprints,” Col. Misfer Al-Juaid, official spokesman for Jeddah police, told Arab News.

Two girls and three boys died in the fire that gutted two old homes occupied by a number of Saudi families in Al-Khumrah district.

Civil Defense spokesman Maj. Abdullah Al-Amri said the investigators have handed their report to the police.

Shahir Abbad, Siham Attiyah, Jassim Mutlak, Eman Mahboub and Khaleel Attiyah died in the fire. They were aged three to four years.

Quoting security sources, Al-Madinah newspaper reported on Wednesday that the fire was caused deliberately. Police have questioned the families of the children and their neighbors to determine what may have caused the fire.

The Commission for Investigation and Public Prosecution as well as the Criminal Investigation Department took part in the investigation.

Mahboub Lafi Al-Thaalabi, grandfather of the children, said the fire broke out while the children were playing in the courtyard of the house.

Mahboub Obaid Al-Thaalabi, father of Eman, also said the fire took place while he was away from home. “When I reached home I was told five children died in the fire,” he said.

Schoolboy dead

Police have found the dead body of an eight-year-old boy inside a deserted car north of the city.

Al-Juaid believed that it was a natural death and there was no suspicious activity behind it. The child belonged to an orphanage in Jeddah.

Orphanage officials said the child had not returned from school after classes on Tuesday. He used to travel in a bus with four other children.

They contacted the school, but the school manager said the boy had gone back in the bus along with the other children.

The school manager then informed police that he had gone missing.

“Police launched a search operation to find the child and found his body today,” Al-Juaid said, adding that an investigation has been launched into his death.