CAIRNS: Eight children ranging from babies to teenagers were found dead at a home in the Australian city of Cairns yesterday, police said, reportedly in a gruesome mass stabbing just days after a deadly siege in Sydney.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott called the Cairns tragedy heartbreaking.
“All parents would feel a gut-wrenching sadness at what has happened,” he said in a statement. “This is an unspeakable crime.”
Cairns police said they were called to the scene in the northern city and found the bodies of the children, aged between 18 months and 15 years.
A woman in her 30s, who police said is believed to be the mother of seven of the dead children, was injured in the incident in the suburb of Manoora, 10 minutes from the city centre.
The victims have not yet been officially identified but police said late yesterday that the eighth child is not from the same family group, as they said there were no formal suspects for the distressing deaths.
“We’re not talking about naming suspects or identifying particular suspects at this stage,” Cairns regional crime co-ordinator Detective Inspector Bruno Asnicar said.
“We’re looking at anybody that’s had any involvement. Everybody who’s had any involvement at all in the past two or three days is a person of interest.”
Cairns is a tropical city with a population of more than 150,000 people and is popular with international tourists as a gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, one of Australia’s biggest tourist sites.
The Australian Associated Press cited the injured woman’s cousin, Lisa Thaiday, as saying a 20-year-old man arrived home to find his siblings dead inside the house.
Reports widely said the children had been stabbed while the Cairns Post reported they were also suffocated, although police did not immediately confirm this.
Who killed the children remains unclear but Asnicar said there was no need for the public to be worried, suggesting no one was on the loose.
AFP
