Five children were found dead at an apartment in a western German city of Solingen on Thursday, local media reported citing a police statement. According to the reports, the 27-year-old mother is suspected of killing the children before attempting to take her own life at a train station in nearby Düsseldorf. The dead girls were ages 1, 2 and 3, and the boys were 6 and 8, according to German news agency dpa. 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 a possible motive. Emergency services were called to the residential block in the Hasseldelle area of the city on Thursday afternoon. Responding to call at about 13:45 local time (11:45 GMT), police said they arrived at the apartment building in Solingen, in North Rhine-Westphalia state, to discover the bodies of five children. The children's grandmother, who lives 60 km away in the city of Mönchengladbach, had alerted the emergency services, the German news website Bild reported. Police spokesman Stefan Weiand said the children's mother had been "seriously injured" after throwing herself in front of a train in Düsseldorf and was being treated in hospital under police guard. "Background and further details are not known at this point and that is what we are trying to find out," Weiand told journalists, adding that police investigators were at the scene "in full force". Police said they were hoping to learn more about the "incredibly tragic occurrence" after speaking with the mother. The entrance to the block of flats in Solingen has been sealed off and images show police cars and ambulances lining the streets, with forensic officers also at the scene.
