Six coffins, one family – Harlow mourns its dead

More than 400 people mourned the deaths in last week's house fire of Sabah Usmani and her five children as their funeral took place at the Harlow Islamic Centre in Essex yesterday.

Husband and father Dr Abdul Shakoor, pictured above in a dark jacket and white shirt, who was the only survivor of the fire, said: "It is a shocking and heartbreaking tragedy to myself, immediate family members and close friends... within such a short period of time I lost everything in my life." The cortege carried the bodies of Ms Usmani along with Hira, 12, Sohaib, 11, Muneeb, nine, Rayyan, six, and Maheen, three.