Man in court over firebombing (From This Is Local London)

Man in court over firebombing

9:58am Thursday 4th May 2006 in

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AN UNEMPLOYED 32-year-old man has been charged with murdering two men in a firebombing of their shop in south London.

Robert Torto, from Stockwell Park Road in Lambeth, is due to appear in Greenwich magistrate's court today.

Kasmiri shopkeeper Khizar Hayat, 40, was killed in the fire at the Price Cutter Food and Wine store in Clapham last Thursday and his colleague Hamidi Hamidullah, 31, died from his injuries in hospital this week.

Two other Asian colleagues leapt through flames to flee through the front door, receiving minor burns. But Mr Hamidullah and Mr Hayat tried in vain to break open the locked back door.

Torto was also charged with three counts of arson and intent to endanger life following separate arson attacks on shops in broad daylight.

On April 14, a petrol bomb was thrown into a newsagent in Tulse Hill, Brixton. A customer suffered burns to both legs, but was released from hospital.

Four days later, on Monday morning, a petrol bomb was tossed inside an off licence in Portland Road, South Norwood.