Police arrested a 40-year-old man Monday for allegedly setting fire to his own home in Kitsuki, Oita Prefecture, where four bodies, believed to be his children, were found amid the burned wreckage.

Kenichiro Suemune, a member of the Maritime Self-Defense Force, admitted to committing arson, investigators said.

Four of his children aged 5 to 14, out of a total of eight children, have been missing since late Sunday after the fire gutted their two-story house.