Three children, aged six, four and two, were burned alive in their home in a small town of Belgium, after their mother locked them in a shed and set it on fire.

According to local media reports, Thioro Mbow, 35, called her husband immediately after she started the blaze, in order to force him to listen to their screams.

She allegedly told him: “I can hear their screams but I will do nothing to save them. You’d better hurry but you will be too late to rescue them. They won’t survive.”

The horrified father, who was at work at the time, called his sister, who lived nearby, and asked her to rush to the house but it was too late.

The 35-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of murder.