Qualla: 2018 Leicester explosion

2018 Leicester explosion: Introduction

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Just after seven o'clock on the evening of Sunday 25 February 2018, a small Polish convenience store called Żabka on Hinckley Road in Leicester exploded with enough force to bring down the two-storey flat above it. Five people died: Mary Ragoobeer, 46, and her sons Sean, 17, and Shane, 18, who were in the flat above the shop where the family lived; Leah Beth Reek, 18, Shane's girlfriend, who had come over that evening; and Viktorija Ijevleva, 22, who was working at the shop. Mary's husband Jose was at work. Their fifteen-year-old son Scotty, who was also in the flat, was pulled from the rubble alive. He was the only one. The explosion had been deliberately set by the shop's lessee and two accomplices in a scheme to claim around £300,000 in insurance money. The fact that anyone was inside, including one of their own conspirators, was apparently not enough to stop them.

Read more: 2018 Leicester explosion on Qualla

2018 Leicester explosion: The family above the shop

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Mary Ragoobeer and her husband Jose had been married for twenty-two years. They lived in the flat above the Żabka with their three sons. Mary worked locally and was about to begin an Adult Nursing course at university with the goal of becoming a palliative care nurse, the kind wh...

Read more: 2018 Leicester explosion on Qualla

2018 Leicester explosion: The shop on Hinckley Road

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Żabka, named after a Polish convenience store chain, had opened in December 2017 under the lease of Aram Kurd, an Iraqi Kurd in his thirties who had come to Britain years before. Polish supermarkets had become small landmarks in the British high street through the 2010s, serv...

Read more: 2018 Leicester explosion on Qualla

2018 Leicester explosion: What the conspirators did

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Across early February 2018, Aram Kurd, his fellow Iraqi Kurd Arkan Ali, and a third man, Hawkar Hassan, bought petrol in carefully spaced trips, the kind of detail that becomes evidence in a courtroom. Forty-five litres of petrol, several litres of barbecue fluid, four litres of ...

Read more: 2018 Leicester explosion on Qualla

2018 Leicester explosion: The investigation and the trial

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Leicestershire Police declared a major incident within minutes of the blast. Hinckley Road and Carlisle Street were closed. Search and rescue worked through the night looking for survivors. Kurd, very visibly injured, gave a series of media interviews the next day claiming to hav...

Read more: 2018 Leicester explosion on Qualla

2018 Leicester explosion: What the city is left with

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A funeral for the Ragoobeer family in April 2018 drew hundreds of mourners. Leah Beth Reek's family spoke publicly of an eighteen-year-old who had volunteered at a hospice, who had wanted to help dying people. Viktorija Ijevleva's mother apologised, on her daughter's behalf, to t...

Read more: 2018 Leicester explosion on Qualla