On Friday evening, Croatian police found three dead children in an apartment in Zagreb, killed by their father, who later attempted suicide, HRT TV reported. The children killed were seven-year-old twins, a boy and a girl, and a four-year-old boy.
The police entered the apartment at about 2 am. The children’s father, a 56-year-old Austrian citizen, permanently residing in Croatia, tried to commit suicide. He was unconscious, he was taken to the hospital, nothing threatens his life, reports HRT.
The Croatian prosecutor’s office said it was investigating the case and the father was suspected of killing the children.
According to the Austrian daily newspaper Courier, one of the Austrian’s friends read a post he published on social networks, which indicated the man’s suicidal intentions, and went to the police. The father of the deceased children complained of financial and mental problems.
The parents of the children are divorced, their mother resides in Dubrovnik, and the children were supposed to spend this weekend with their father, according to Croatian media.
“There have been no reports of domestic violence in this family,” said Croatian Deputy Minister of Labor, Family and Welfare, Margareta Majeric.
According to HRT, doctors at the hospital the man was taken to suspect that he was under the influence of psychoactive substances, but this has not yet been confirmed.