Police have launched a major enquiry after a woman whose house was adorned with an anti-Israel poster was found dead inside her burning home.

Police, ambulance and fire crews discovered the body of a woman, named locally as Emma Flynn, 47, at a house in Rusholme, south Manchester.

In the window was a poster of an Arab woman being manhandled by Israeli police. The caption read: "Israeli police call this self-defence".

It is believed the dead woman worked in an administrative role at Manchester Metropolitan University, spoke Kurdish and had links with Manchester's Middle Eastern community.

Greater Manchester Police Superintendent Stuart Barton said: "I must stress that this inquiry is at a very early stage and we still do not know how the woman died or what started the fire."