Eight children, seven of them siblings, aged between 18 months and 15 years were today found stabbed to death inside a home in the Australian city of Cairns, in a gruesome mass murder days after an Iranian gunman and two hostages were killed during a 17-hour siege in Sydney.
The 34-year-old mother of seven children, who was stabbed multiple times, is in a stable condition in hospital, police said, as they begin what will be an extensive investigation into one of the worst single-family killings in Australia.
The house in the Manoora suburb has been cordoned off and detectives are searching the yard.
Police have said it was a "tragic event" but there was no cause for public concern.
A 20-year-old brother of the seven dead siblings made the discovery in the house, media reports said.
Thre eighth one was a family member, police believe.
Queensland Police said in a statement earlier that they were called to a residence in Murray Street following reports of a woman with serious injuries.
"During an examination of the residence police located the bodies of the children, all aged between 18 months and 15 years," said the statement.
Queensland Premier Campbell Newman said he was "deeply saddened and shocked" by the events.
Police have not made any arrests, but said the injured woman was assisting with their investigations. They are interviewing a man who was possibly the first person on the scene.
Specialist police officers were travelling from Brisbane to assist with the probe, Detective Inspector Bruno Asnicar said, describing the incident as "extremely distressing".
A relative told the police that the children were all siblings. She said the woman was their mother.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said in a statement it was an "unspeakable crime", and that all parents would feel "gut-wrenching sadness at what has happened".
The incident comes days after an Iranian-born ISIS sympathiser took 17 people hostages and killed two of them before being gunned down by the forces in the 17-hour-long hostage drama at a cafeteria in Sydney on Monday.
