Birmingham firework murder victim 'fun loving man'

Police are treating Anthony Nicholls' death as murder

A father who died after a massive firework was let off inside his Birmingham home has been described as a "fun loving" man by his family.

Anthony Nicholls, 56, died five days after a 200-shot commercial firework started a severe fire at his home.

His daughter Fiona Nicholls said he was a "funny man" who "worked hard all his life".

His partner, a 50-year-old woman, suffered lower leg fractures after jumping from a first floor window.

Mr Nicholls, a former Land Rover worker, had been in an induced coma since the attack at 23:00 GMT on Thursday at Birchtrees Crescent, Tile Cross.

The house in Tile Cross was gutted in the fire

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Police said the fire started after a large "commercial-sized firework" was placed in the property and set alight.

It is thought to have contained around 200 tubes of explosives and would have taken about two minutes to fully discharge, gutting the open plan living accommodation.

Det Insp Paul Joyce said: "We are going through lots of CCTV and developing some lines of inquiry from that.

"This would have been a large heavy firework that would have been difficult to carry some distance, so I would ask anyone who saw someone carrying a large box in the area last Thursday night to contact us."

Police said the firework would have been difficult to carry some distance