A woman has been found dead after a fire raged through a family home.

Her body was discovered by firefighters as they fought the blaze in a bungalow.

A man, named locally as Mohammad Soboh, was also caught in the fire and was last night in the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton receiving treatment for smoke inhalation.

Fire crews were called to the £300,000 white bungalow in Grand Crescent, Rottingdean, at 1.30pm yesterday.

After entering the home and finding the woman's body they called in police.

A team of detectives were yesterday working with fire investigators to try to determine what caused the blaze and how the woman died.

They would not comment on what they had found inside the home other than to say the circumstances around the fire appeared to be complicated.

Sussex Police officers last night said they could not confirm the identity of the victim because they were still trying to contact members of her family.

A Sussex Police spokeswoman said: "Sadly one adult was found deceased within the house.

"We are continuing to work closely with the fire and rescue service to establish the cause of the fire."

A woman, who neighbours named as Nada Soboh, the wife of Mr Soboh, was seen sobbing yesterday afternoon as she and her children climbed into police cars taking them from their home.

Neighbours said the couple lived at the bungalow with their baby, a son and daughter under five and a son who was a sixth-former.

One neighbour said: "They are a really lovely family."

She said Mrs Soboh's mother regularly stayed with them.

East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service refused to comment on whether the blaze could have been started deliberately.

A specialist forensic investigation team from West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service was dispatched to the scene.

A stretch of Grand Crescent remained sealed by police tape last night.

Mr Soboh, a company director, originally bought the house in 2001 but neighbours said the family had lived in Jordan for several years since then.

Residents in the road said they were shocked by what had happened.

Neighbour Derek Davies, 80, said: "I heard three fire engines arriving so I went to look outside and saw a man slumped by a wall opposite their house.

"He had an oxygen mask on his face and there was a fireman with him.

"Then a woman came running up the street, the lady who lives there, and she was screaming: 'Is he dead? Is he dead?'"

Doreen Marks, 72, also of Grand Crescent, said: "I was having lunch with my husband when we smelled smoke.

"We looked outside and we could see it billowing out of the side and back of their house. It was a terrible shock.

"We've never had anything like it happen here before."

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