A former Norfolk student who died in a shop explosion in Leicester allegedly plotted with three men to make a bogus insurance claim by burning down the building.

Three men are due to face a murder trial after five people - including Viktorija Ijevleva - were killed in the shop blast in Leicester in March this year.

Arkan Ali, Hawkar Hassan and Aram Kurd are also accused of plotting to make a bogus insurance claim with Ms Ijevleva before she died in the explosion, which destroyed a shop and flat in Leicester.

The trio, together with Ms Ijevleva, allegedly committed fraud during the two months before the blast at the store on Hinckley Road in February.

Ms Ijevleva studied A-levels and completed a business management degree at City College Norwich, and ended up with a 2:1 in Business Management Accounting and Finance BA Hons degree in 2016.

Ms Ijevleva, Mary Ragoobeer, 46, her teenage sons Shane and Sean, and 18-year-old Leah Beth Reek, who was Shane's girlfriend, were killed in the incident.

Ali, 37, Hassan, 32, and Kurd, 34, previously denied five counts of murder and five alternative counts of manslaughter.

A further charge against the three men alleges they conspired with 22-year-old Ms Ijevleva to make a gain by dishonestly 'pursuing an insurance claim in respect of a fire' at the shop.

The trial of Ali, of Drake Close, Oldham; Hassan, of no fixed address; and Kurd, of Hillary Place, Leicester, begins on Tuesday at Leicester Crown Court.