Cork arson attack: Gardaí gain more time to question man

Gardaí in Cork have been given more time to question a 22-year-old man who is being held after an arson attack at a house in which a woman and a young boy died.

Twenty-five-year-old Helena O'Dwyer and her five-year-old nephew Ryan were killed when a fire broke out at her parents' home in Nutley Grove in Mahon in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Eight people were in the house at the time, including Helena and Ryan, her parents Joe and Helena, sister Dawn, Helena's daughter Courtney and a niece and nephew. Six of them escaped uninjured after a local taxi driver and her sons helped to pull them from the house.

The man being questioned by gardaí can be held until 8pm today.

Newspaper reports say Ms O'Dwyer had been assaulted recently by a man who was known to her and that she had subsequently moved into her parents' home.