German police discover five children dead at a home in the city of Solingen
FIVE children have been found dead at a home in the German city of Solingen, police said.
Germany: Emergency services respond to incident in Solingen
Police officers made the horrific discovery at a residential block in the Hasseldelle area of the city, on Thursday afternoon. German newspaper Bild reports the five children were aged between one and eight-years-old.
Police have sealed off the surrounding area of the apartment located just outside Duesseldorf, in western Germany.
Medical and forensic officers are also attending the scene.
An investigation remains ongoing and cause of the deaths remains unknown.
The victims were aged one, two, three, six and eight-year-old.
Bild reports the grandmother of the children alerted the police to the incident.
According to unconfirmed reports published in Bild, the grandmother told police her daughter, aged 27, had killed five of her children, and was out of her home with a sixth child.
The German news outlet reports the mother also suffered serious injuries during an incident involving a train in Duesseldorf, near Solingen.
She is under police protection.
The publication added an 11-year-old boy was found unharmed.
A local police spokesman told Bild: "We can't say anything about the motive yet.
“The mother must be interviewed."
(Additional reporting by Rebecca Perring and Monika Pallenberg).