Revealed: burned-out wreckage of millionaire's arson house

The devastation left by the fire which destroyed the country home of a millionaire businessman who apparently killed his wife and daughter and then himself was revealed today.

Little is left of Osbaston House after the intense blaze which broke out in the early hours of last Tuesday.

Cars parked outside the £1.2 million home in Oswestry, Shropshire, were also destroyed, while almost all the interior of the three-floor building was gutted.

The bodies of Christopher Foster, 50, and his wife Jill, 49, have been removed from the wreckage of the 400-year-old house and formally identified. Remains believed to be those of their 15-year-old daughter Kirstie, who was chatting online to a friend minutes before the fire broke out, have been found and were being identified today. Police believe that Mr Foster shot his wife before committing suicide.

It is still unclear whether he killed his daughter, a pupil at £16,500-a-year Ellesmere College, and himself before the fire or whether the blaze claimed their lives.

Also shot dead were animals at the house, including dogs, horses and guinea pigs.

Detectives fear Mr Foster barricaded himself and his family inside the house before the fire, making it impossible for rescue attempts to succeed.