A search is on for a man ac­cused of beat­ing a 14-year-old girl be­fore set­ting fire to her moth­er’s house in Siparia on Sat­ur­day night.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors said around 9.45 pm, the ac­cused, of Gam­ble Street Ex­ten­sion, went to the home of 29-year-old Alex­is Al­leyne, at Gam­ble Street Ex­ten­sion, Siparia.

The sus­pect al­leged­ly beat Al­leyne’s daugh­ter be­fore turn­ing on Al­leyne, who was al­so beat­en.

Al­leyne and her daugh­ter ran out of the house and at­tempt­ed to con­tact the po­lice. How­ev­er, of­fi­cers said the sus­pect then threat­ened to burn down the house, af­ter which flames were seen in­side the build­ing.

Al­leyne re-en­tered her house in an at­tempt to put out the fire, but it spread through the house. She es­caped in­to near­by bush­es and lat­er sought treat­ment at the Siparia Dis­trict Health Fa­cil­i­ty for burns to her left back and shoul­der.

The en­tire house was even­tu­al­ly de­stroyed. The val­ue of the dam­age has not yet been de­ter­mined.

PC Ra­moutar and PC Mo­hammed, of the Siparia CID, re­spond­ed with fire of­fi­cers led by act­ing FF­SO Rooplal, who ex­tin­guished the blaze.

Mem­bers of the South West­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force, Siparia Po­lice Sta­tion, and Siparia CID are now on a man­hunt for the sus­pect. He has mul­ti­ple ad­dress­es but has not yet been ar­rest­ed.

The moth­er and her daugh­ter are now un­der the watch of the po­lice. —RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA