Five children found dead in German flat, mother tried to kill herself

German police have found the bodies of five children in an apartment in the western town of Solingen and their mother, who is suspected of their murder, tried to kill herself, police said on Thursday.

Police received a tip-off at 1.45 p.m. (1145 GMT) that five children were dead in the apartment in Solingen, police spokesman Stefan Weiand said.
“Unfortunately, this proved to be the case,” Weiand added. “At the moment, we assume that the 27-year-old mother was responsible.”

“The mother threw herself in front of a train in Duesseldorf and is badly injured. At the moment she is being treated in hospital,” he added. “There is one more child that survived.”

Police were trying to find out the background to the tragedy.

Earlier, mass-selling newspaper Bild reported in its online edition that the children’s grandmother had called police to tell them that her daughter had killed five of her children and was out of her home with a further child.

The police then found the dead children, aged 1, 2, 3, 6 and 8, Bild said, adding that a further child - an 11-year-old son - was found unharmed at the grandmother’s home.