Australian PM: arsonists are mass murderers

Arsonists suspected of starting some of the 400 bush fires which swept across parts of Australia were today labelled "mass murderers".

Prime minister Kevin Rudd, who has suspended federal parliament and is touring the devastated state of Victoria, said fears that the worst wildfires ever to strike the country were deliberately started had prompted a full-scale inquiry

"What can you say? What can you say?" he said. "There are no words to describe it other than mass murder. It is a level of horror few of us had anticipated."

Two people were charged last night with arson as officials predicted the death toll might exceed 230.

Fire investigators are still sifting through the ash and rubble of the charred landscape. Relatives of the missing have been warned it could be days before bodies are identified because the remains are so badly burnt. Police have declared more than half of the state a crime scene and called in forensic specialists to try to discover how the disaster started.

Keiran Walshe, Victoria's deputy police commissioner, said finding the culprits would be difficult, but not impossible. "There's always something that will tell us where the ignition point was and what was used to ignite it," he said. "Then we can start to piece together who could have done it."

He said offenders could be charged with arson causing death, a crime that carries a 25-year prison sentence.

Victoria's premier John Brumby today promised there will be a Royal Commission to investigate every aspect of this "hell on earth" so they could learn from the tragedy.

One of the key issues to be considered by the inquiry will be Victoria's decades-old "stay and defend or leave early" bush fire policy. "What broke over the state was like a tsunami," he said. "It didn't matter how good people's fire plans were. "When the wind changed there was nothing that anybody could have done.

"This will now be remembered as one of the darkest days in Australia's peacetime history. A tragedy beyond belief, beyond precedent and really beyond words."

The fires started on Saturday, the hottest day recorded in Melbourne, Victoria's capital, where temperatures hit 46.4C (115.5F). The flames were fanned by gales and burnt through more than 1,000 square miles.

Hundreds of survivors have gathered in relief centres where food, clothing and counselling is being provided by charities and volunteers.

One man, Sam Gents, appealed for help tracing his wife and daughters on national television. He said he had been prevented from reaching the property where his family had been staying because the roads were too dangerous.

"I was talking to my wife on the phone but then she had to go because she said it had got bad and they were blocked in by the fire," he said. "The last time anyone saw them the kids were running in the house. Now all the houses are gone so I just hope they got out."

Fourteen fires are still burning out of control across the state, with a blaze near Beechworth in the north causing the most concern. Despite cooler temperatures, authorities have warned that firemen only have until the end of the week to control the fires before the temperatures begin to rise again.