British detectives have arrested a married couple in a probe into seven deaths at a old people’s home in Somerset, police and media reports said yesterday.

An Avon and Somerset Police spokesman said officers were investigating whether any of the deaths were suspicious. Police arrested and bailed a 45-year-old woman and a 48-year-old man in January as part of the probe into the Parkfields Residential Care Home in Butleigh, near Glastonbury, the spokesman added. The Sun newspaper identified the pair as registered nurse Rachel Baker and her husband Leigh, a chef, who run the home.

The paper said the couple had been arrested on suspicion of administering a noxious substance after the death of 97-year-old resident Lucy Cox. An inquest into Cox’s death has been opened and adjourned. Police are investigating six other deaths at the home since July 2004, the paper said.