Bodies of 5 children found at apartment in Germany

BERLIN – Five children were found dead at an apartment in a western German city Thursday, and their mother is suspected of killing them, authorities said.

The bodies were found in Solingen, near Cologne and Duesseldorf. The 27-year-old mother of the three girls and two boys later jumped in front of a train in Duesseldorf and was taken to a hospital with injuries, police spokesman Stefan Weiand told n-tv television.

The dead girls were ages 1, 2 and 3, and the boys were 6 and 8, German news agency dpa reported. The mother’s sixth child, an 11-year-old boy, survived and was with relatives.

There was no immediate information on the causes of death or possible motive. The bodies were found after the children’s grandmother, who lives 60 kilometres (37 miles) away, notified police on Thursday afternoon, said the region’s top security official, Herbert Reul.