A police inquiry was continuing last night into how a woman burned to death at a Bradford house.

The 23-year-old, who some neighbours say was five months pregnant, was found with severe injuries in the garden behind her home in Cloudsdale Avenue, West Bowling.

It was understood she had been on fire and she was pronounced dead at the scene a short time later. The investigation is being led by the Homicide and Major Enquiry Team of West Yorkshire Police.

A post-mortem examination was being carried last night by a Home Office pathologist to try to determine the exact cause of her death and it remained unclear whether it was being treated as suspicious.

Police were called in by firefighters who had responded to reports of a fire at the house at about 7.15pm on Thursday.

Michael Mawson, Crew Commander at Odsal fire station, said the fire had been confined to the woman who they found in the garden. Other members of her family are believed to have been in the property at the time.

Police cordoned off the area to carry out forensic examinations which continued throughout yesterday.

Residents in the cul-de-sac yesterday said the woman had moved from Pakistan about a year ago to live with her husband and in-laws. One neighbour, Nasreen Khan, said: “It’s shocking – you don’t expect that around here because it’s a quiet neighbourhood.”

Mrs Khan said the woman was rarely seen but she believed she was pregnant.

She said: “A lot of people were saying she was expecting. She had only been in this country for a year.”

Another neighbour, Susan Ali, 60, said she had been left in shock by the tragedy. She said: “It’s a real community around here but something like this on your own doorstep is horrible. It must be hard for the family.”

Aziza Khan, who lives nearby, also said she believed the woman was pregnant and lived at the property with her husband, mother-in-law and two sisters-in-law.

She said: “We never saw her. You never saw her with her husband, never ever saw them together.”

Another resident, who did not want to be identified, said she had never seen the woman since she moved in.

She said: “We couldn’t get over the poor girl because according to the neighbours she hasn’t even been in the country for a year, although I don’t know how much of that is true. Apparently she came from Pakistan less than a year ago.”

Another resident, who did not want to be identified, said he believed the woman was five months pregnant.

Councillor Ian Greenwood (Lab, Little Horton) said: “It appears to be that she died in a horrific way and you can only be horrified by the apparent cause of death and feel desperately sorry for her and her family and friends.

“All I can say is that our thoughts should be with them at this, what must be an absolutely terrible time.”