Killer shop explosion ‘started by petrol’

AN EXPLOSION which destroyed a city centre shop and upstairs flat, killing five people, was started by petrol, a court heard yesterday.

Mary Ragoobar, 46, and her two sons Shane, 18, and Sean, 17, died along with shop worker Viktorija Ijevleva, 22, and Shane’s girlfriend, Leah Reeks, 18, in the blast nine days ago.

Yesterday Miss Ijevleva’s partner, Arkan Ali, 37, stood alongside the grocery store’s proprietor, Aram Kurd, 33, and a friend, Hawkar Hassan, 32, accused of five counts of manslaughter and arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered. Magistrates in Leicester heard that traces of petrol were found throughout the remains of the Zabka shop on the city’s Hinckley Road.

A CCTV camera monitoring the rear of the building had been turned around by a ‘gloved hand’, the court was told.

Prosecutor Zoe Lee said: ‘It has been established that the explosion was caused by petrol which was spread throughout the shop.’

Kurd, of Braunstone, Leicester; Hassan, of no fixed abode, and Ali, who gave an address in Oldham, each made no application for bail and were remanded in custody. They will appear via video link at Leicester Crown Court on April 3.

The defendants followed the court proceedings through a Kurdish interpreter.

Miss Ijevleva, a business management graduate, had been due to start a new job as an accountant in Coventry.

Shane and Sean perished in their family’s flat above the store alongside Miss Reek, 18, a college student and hospice volunteer. Mrs Ragoobar is expected to be confirmed as a victim of the blast when police identify the remains of a fifth body found in the rubble.