Police from Tien Giang Province in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta region have recently launched legal proceedings against a local man for purportedly killing his three family members after setting fire to their house.

The provincial investigation agency is completing an indictment against Le Minh Ngoc, 56, hailing from the province's My Tho City, for his act of murder.

The house fire claimed the lives of three people, including his 51-year-old wife Nguyen Thi Thuy Lan, their 27-year-old daughter Nguyen Thi My Ha, and four-year-old grandchild Vo Hoang Ngoc Tr..

Ngoc started setting their bedroom ablaze with two liters of gasoline on Tuesday last week after reportedly locking the door from the outside, according to initial investigation.

His wife, daughter, and grandchild were sleeping at the time.

Upon spotting smoke and hearing shouts for help from the burning house, local residents managed to unlock its doors and break the windows before rushing the insiders to a nearby hospital for emergency treatment.

Ha succumbed to serious burns on the way to the hospital, while Lan passed away at Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.

Ngoc and his grandchild were transferred to major hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City, where the child could not make it due to severe burns on 90 percent of the total body surface while he remains in a critical condition.

As local authorities sealed off and examined the scene to determine the cause of the incident, they discovered a gasoline can, a lighter, a knife, and many other items believed to be used for causing the fire.

Police said one hypothesis was that Ngoc suspected his wife of having an affair, which drove him to set fire to the entire family in an apparent suicide.

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