BRITAIN:POLICE HAVE launched a double murder investigation after the severely injured bodies of two young boys, believed to be brothers, were found in a car near a beauty spot on the outskirts of Glasgow, Scotland.
The vehicle was found by a passersby late on Saturday afternoon in a secluded car park in a quiet country lane leading from the village of Lennoxtown to Campsie Glen, an area of hills popular with walkers and cyclists.
The boys, aged two and six, had allegedly suffered violent deaths. A man, understood to be their father, was taken to hospital with very severe burns. Paramedics were unable to revive either child. None of the casualties has yet been named.
Police are pursuing the theory that both boys had been killed, and that the man, who is understood to be separated from their mother and who had weekend visiting rights to the children, allegedly tried to set the car on fire and kill himself. He was in Glasgow royal infirmary under police guard, and was understood to be in a very serious condition.
Initial reports that the boys had been killed by carbon monoxide from a pipe connected to the car's exhaust were discounted by police.
Detectives are not looking for anyone else in connection with the deaths. In a statement, they said: "Police are treating as suspicious the deaths of two young boys aged two and six found within a parked car on Crow Road, Lennoxtown, on Saturday at a quarter past five." Strathclyde police added last night that they had appointed a family liaison officer to support the boys' mother and were waiting for a postmortem examination to confirm the cause of death. Witnesses said the extent of the tragedy became clear after they saw fire engines, police and ambulances heading towards the area and a helicopter overhead. Witnesses said one ambulance returned down the B822 Crow Road with its lights flashing, a second following.
Ronnie Jannaway, club steward at Campsie golf club, said: "The only indication was when the police cars started to go past and we thought maybe it was a road accident; it's quite a bad road for accidents. It wasn't until later on that people heard the full story, and everyone was quite shocked about it."
David Whitton, the constituency MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, said: "It's obviously a terrible thing to have happened. Clearly there will have to be an investigation to find out why this happened.
"It's a quiet back road up towards the Campsie hills and there are various places where you can park and no one would pay much attention to the car. It just seems to be a terrible thing to have happened."