Three children are critically ill after they were rescued from a fire at a derelict pub, police have said.
A fire broke out on the first-floor of The Woodman on London Road, Hazel Grove, Stockport, at 20:30 BST on Tuesday.
North West Ambulance Service said the children, whose ages have not been given, were being treated for burns.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said it was believed that the fire had been started deliberately.
The force has appealed for anyone with information to get in touch and urged parents to speak to their children.
Det Insp Chris Aunins added: "Now we are in the school summer holiday period, I'd like to appeal to parents and carers to explain to children the dangers of playing within disused buildings, as they pose a really serious risk with a number of potential dangers within them."
Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service said crews were still on scene and London Road between Mill Street and Commercial Street remained closed.
Bus firm Stagecoach said its 192 service would terminate at Stepping Hill due to the incident.
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London Fire Brigade (LFB) requires improvement by every measure it is assessed on, a watchdog has found.
Some responders remain untrained for terrorist incidents, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) said.
Values and behaviours are not shown by all LFB staff and it has been slow to provide station facilities for women.
The response to last week's widespread fires was praised "but beneath the surface deeper-seated problems remain".
Matt Parr, inspector of HMICFRS, said: "Overall, the brigade leadership have demonstrated a clear intent to addressing the problems identified during our previous inspection [in 2019].
"However, we are yet to see any clear indication that this has translated into the improvements required."
HMICFRS
LFB response times - six minutes and 24 seconds on average in the year to 31 March 2021 - were the second fastest in the country.
However, the report said nearly half of its callouts were to false alarms and not enough was being done to reduce unnecessary callouts.
"The brigade has made little progress in addressing the following area for improvement identified in 2019," the report says.
The 11 areas which require improvement include understanding and preventing fires and other risks, making best use of resources and ensuring fairness and promoting diversity.
Getting the right people with the right skills, which was previously judged inadequate, still requires improvement.
Reuters
LFB has identified and carried out audits at all 8,517 high-rise buildings in London, which is significantly more than any other fire and rescue service in England, the report's author notes.
Of the 29 recommendations from Phase 1 of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, LFB has implemented 26 out of 29 actions, up from four in February 2021.
'More to do'
Mr Parr added that there had been good progress in some areas.
He said: "For example, in 2018 we were very worried about training for staff in risk‑critical skills, such as incident command and emergency fire engine driving. The LFB has turned this round, and it is no longer a cause of concern.
"I am assured that the brigade is committed to improving and will continue to monitor its progress closely."
LFB commissioner Andy Roe admitted that "we have a lot more to do".
He said: "We are at the start of a long journey and fundamental change in large, complex organisations takes time.
"The extreme events of last week demonstrated just how capable our firefighters are - even in the most challenging circumstances their priority is always to protect the people of London. The brigade needs to honour their courage and dedicated service by improving the organisation for the better.
"I'd like to reassure residents that we are a different brigade from two years ago and while significant changes have been made, neither my staff nor I will stop looking for ways we can improve our service to you."
A spokesperson for the mayor of London said: "The mayor welcomes the findings of the new HMICFRS report and is satisfied that the brigade and commissioner recognise the scale of the task at hand, are open to change and committed to delivering the improvements needed."
The father of a boy at the centre of a life-support treatment fight spent a night in hospital after taking ill before the court ruling, a family spokeswoman says.
Archie Battersbee, 12, was found unconscious at home in Southend, Essex, on 7 April and is on life support.
On Monday, Appeal Court judges ruled that doctors could lawfully disconnect the child's ventilator.
His father, Paul Battersbee, was feared to have had a heart attack or stroke.
The spokeswoman said Mr Battersbee, who is in his 50s, was "OK now" and should be out of hospital by the end of the day.
James Manning/PA
Archie has not regained consciousness since he was found by his mother, Hollie Dance, who believed he had been taking part in an online challenge.
Mr Battersbee took ill shortly before Court of Appeal judges supported a High Court ruling that ending his life support was lawful and in his best interests.
They were asked to postpone their ruling as Mr Battersbee had been taken ill outside court, but they refused.
Ms Dance also wanted judges to adjourn their ruling on the basis that she had "video evidence" that indicated that Archie, who is attached to a ventilator, had twice tried to breathe for himself on Friday and Saturday.
Hollie Dance
Barts Health NHS Trust, which runs the hospital in Whitechapel in east London, had taken the case to the courts to get a ruling on what was in the best interests of Archie, who the court heard suffered catastrophic brain injuries.
Judges in two separate High Court hearings had previously ruled against his parents, who wanted treatment to continue while his heart was still beating.
Water chiefs are preparing for drought as the Met Office confirmed England's driest eight month period since 1976.
Officials at the Environment Agency (EA) are transferring water to low running rivers, rescuing fish and reoxygenating water, while water companies are implementing the early stages of their drought plans.
The National Drought Group of farmers, water companies and land users met this morning and have urged people to conserve water, including by swapping baths for showers, re-using water used to rinse vegetables and keeping cold water in the fridge to avoid running the tap.
"Don't wait for it to happen," said John Leyland, EA's chief of staff, urging people to start conserving water.
"This is how drought starts. The continued hot and dry weather may lead to more environmental problems in August," he said, adding water companies do have sufficient supplies for summer.
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It comes as the Royal Meteorological Society told Sky News drought was now "very likely" for the majority of the south of England and Wales.
"Based on the forecast... it really feels like we've got some trouble ahead with the lack of rainfall," chief executive Liz Bentley told Sky News.
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November 2021 to June 2022 was the driest in England since the same period in 1975-76, the Met Office confirmed today, and last week's record-breaking mega heatwave exacerbated the already parched earth.
Image:Staines Reservoir in Middlesex during the severe drought of 1976
The dry weather has left most of England, apart from the North West, in "prolonged dry weather" status, the first of four drought categories.
Whether areas fall into the second "drought" stage hinges on when the rain returns, and whether it adds up to more or less than usual. The last drought periods were in 2018/2019 and 2011-12.
"Where the the lack of rainfall has been most prevalent over recent months in the southern half of the UK, is where we're not likely to see much rainfall in the coming days," Ms Bentley said.
Anywhere south of the Welsh coastal village of Aberporth in the west, to The Wash in East Anglia, is "really struggling with persistent months where we've had below average rainfall," she said, with the problem growing more acute the further towards the South East.
Image:Hosepipe bans could be on the horizon
The UK is getting hotter as human activity changes the climate. While drought is not expected to become more frequent or severe in the next few decades, according to climate models it will become more severe, intense and frequent in the second half of this century.
The North West tends to be wetter because it is on the front end of the prevailing weather system that arrives from the Atlantic.
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Liz Truss beat Rishi Sunak in the Tory leadership debate, a new poll of Tory members suggests as they said that they found her more trustworthy, likeable and in touch with ordinary people.
A snap YouGov survey of 507 Conservative Party members found that 50 per cent believed that the foreign secretary was the better performer while 39 per cent said that the former chancellor was better.
Nearly two thirds of those polled — 63 per cent — said that Truss came across as more in touch with ordinary people, compared to 19 per cent for Sunak.
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Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss tore into each other over their rival visions for the future of the UK economy, in their first head-to-head TV debate.
The two contenders to be the next PM did not hold back from "blue-on-blue" attacks in the hour-long BBC special.
Mr Sunak told Ms Truss her tax cut plan would "tip millions of people into misery" and cost the Conservatives the next election.
Ms Truss said tax rises brought in by him would lead to a recession.
The foreign secretary and former chancellor, who until three weeks ago were in the same cabinet, talked over each other at times and shot angry glances across the stage at Stoke-on-Trent's Victoria Hall.
It led to complaints afterwards by Ms Truss's supporters that the ex-chancellor was being too aggressive and was "mansplaining" - something fiercely denied by the Sunak camp.
The pair were on better terms by the end of the debate, with Ms Truss saying she would "love" to have Mr Sunak on her team if she becomes PM. The ex-chancellor praised her stance on Russia.
But the row over tax dominated the early exchanges.
Ms Truss wants to scrap the rise to National Insurance, a planned rise in corporation tax and would temporarily scrap green levies on energy bills to be paid for through borrowing.
Mr Sunak says he would not cut taxes until inflation was under control.
Mr Sunak - who quit as chancellor earlier this month - said the coronavirus pandemic had created a large bill and that putting it on the "country's credit card" would "pass the tab to our children and grandchildren".
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Ms Truss insisted that under her plans the UK would start paying down the debt in three year's time - and paying it back straight away as Mr Sunak wanted to do would push the UK into a recession.
Mr Sunak suggested her plans would lead to higher interest rates, but the foreign secretary dismiss this as "scaremongering" and "project fear" - an echo of the criticism aimed at the Remain campaign during Brexit referendum.
Mr Sunak took this opportunity to point out that, unlike him, Ms Truss campaigned against Brexit.
"Maybe I learnt from that," she replied. She later said the Brexit referendum was when she had learnt not to trust Treasury forecasts on the economy.
Other key moments in the debate included:
Both candidates accusing the other of not having been tough enough on China in the past
Ms Truss contrasting her comprehensive school education with that of Mr Sunak's, who attended the fee-paying Winchester College
Mr Sunak said he was "not going to apologise" for his background, adding that his parents' aspirational values were Conservative - something that earned him the evening's first round of applause
Mr Sunak's resignation as chancellor helped trigger the downfall of Mr Johnson.
He praised Mr Johnson's handling of Brexit and the pandemic but said he had quit as a matter of principle over the PM's "conduct" and the fact that they had "very different views about the direction of travel on the economy".
Ms Truss acknowledged the prime minister had made mistakes but said they were not "sufficient" enough for the Conservative Party to have "rejected him".
Neither said they would accept Mr Johnson in their cabinet.
Chief secretary to the Treasury and Truss-backer Simon Clarke told BBC Breakfast that polling after the debate showed the majority of Conservative voters thought his candidate had won the evening - and it had reaffirmed his view that she was the right candidate to lead the country.
He refused to criticise Mr Sunak for interrupting, but said viewers would have to make up their own minds about his debating style. He added he thought Ms Truss had been "cool, controlled" and had made compelling arguments.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer told BBC Breakfast the debate showed a Conservative Party which had "lost the plot and lost its purpose".
He said Mr Sunak was acting like he had "just come down from the moon" and discovered the economy was in a bad way when he had been in charge of it until three weeks ago, while Ms Truss was playing "fantasy economics" without explaining how she would pay for tax cuts.
"We do need change in the UK but the change we need is not a change at the top of the Conservative Party, it is more fundamental than that. We need a fresh start for Britain. We need a Labour government," he said.
A Liberal Democrat spokesperson simply said: "Eurgh."
For all the talk of wanting the "blue-on-blue" attacks to subside - this debate showed they haven't gone away.
Liz Truss's campaign accused Rishi Sunak of not letting her get a word in edgeways, and Rishi Sunak continued to slam Liz Truss's tax cut plans for not being economically sound.
Sources close to Sunak said he had "won the argument" on the economy, with his argument that her tax cuts would further fuel inflation and push up interest rates and people's mortgages.
Behind the scenes, Truss's camp feel positive too - claiming that while she stayed calm Sunak was "flustered".
Debates about their backgrounds haven't gone away either. Both are keen to distance themselves from any suggestion they had certain privileges.
Truss pointed to her comprehensive school education but distanced herself slightly, though, from the outright attacks on Sunak's clothing and education from some of her supporters.
But the key battleground - and the biggest dividing line between the two - is still tax.
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The parents of a 12-year-old boy have lost an appeal against a decision to allow life support treatment to end.
Archie Battersbee was found unconscious at home in Southend, Essex, on 7 April and the Royal London Hospital believe he is brain dead.
Appeal judges supported a High Court ruling that ending his life support was lawful and in his best interests.
A 48-hour delay to ending treatment has been ordered so the family can appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
In a statement, his mother Hollie Dance, said: "As long as Archie is alive, I will never give up on him; he is too good to give up on.
"We should not have to endlessly battle the hospital in the courts for what we believe is right for Archie.
"Top judges have told us, however, that this is the law. If this so, the law must change."
She added the family was considering taking the case to the European court in Strasbourg, France.
Archie has not regained consciousness since he was found by his mother Ms Dance, who believes he had been taking part in an online challenge.
James Manning/PA
Court of Appeal judges in London were asked to postpone their ruling as Archie's father, Paul Battersbee, had been taken ill outside court, but they refused.
It is thought Mr Battersbee may have suffered a heart attack or stroke prior to the hearing.
However, judges said it was in Archie's best interests to give a judgement today.
Ms Dance said she thought judges had been "insensitive" in deciding not to adjourn.
Evidence 'cherry picked'
She also wanted appeal judges to adjourn their ruling on the basis that she had "video evidence" that indicated that Archie, who is attached to a ventilator, had twice tried to breathe for himself on Friday and Saturday.
"The hospital seem to cherry pick what they want to put over to the court. Again we've heard today that Archie's losing weight. He put on 0.4 kilos yesterday. How is that losing weight?" said Ms Dance.
The family's legal team indicated they would make a separate application to Mr Justice Hayden, who made the latest High Court judgement, on that point.
Barts Health NHS Trust, which runs the hospital in Whitechapel in east London, had taken the case to the courts to get a ruling on what was in the best interests of Archie, who the courts have heard had catastrophic brain injuries.
Judges in two separate High Court hearings had previously ruled against his parents, who wanted treatment to continue while his heart was still beating.
Sir Andrew said medical staff had seen "no signs of life" in Archie and his "every bodily function is now maintained by artificial means".
He said the case had received widespread media coverage - including a photograph of Archie.
"Archie is no longer the boy in the photograph," said Sir Andrew.
Hollie Dance
Mr Justice Hayden delivered his ruling after reviewing evidence in the Family Division of the High Court in London.
He described what had happened to Archie as a "tragedy of immeasurable dimensions", but said medical evidence was "compelling and unanimous" and painted a "bleak" picture.
Archie's parents, who are separated, had argued he made errors and had been appealing for a third hearing at the High Court with a different judge.
Barrister Edward Devereux QC, leading the legal team for Archie's parents, had told appeal judges that Mr Justice Hayden had not given "real or proper weight" to Archie's previously expressed wishes and religious beliefs.
He also appealed on the grounds that Archie's family's wishes were also not given "real or proper weight", that Mr Justice Hayden had failed to carry out a "comprehensive evaluation" of the benefits and burdens of continuing life support treatment, and had that he had been wrong to conclude that treatment was burdensome and futile.
Archie's parents have been supported by a campaign organisation called the Christian Legal Centre.
All arguments were dismissed by the Court of Appeal.
Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service
