Mother in Germany ‘poisoned’ her five children and left the oldest unharmed

A 27-year-old mother allegedly poisoned five of her six children in Germany on Thursday before attempting to kill herself.

The mother, locally named Christiane K, remains in serious condition after she tried to kill herself at Dusseldorf station, 20 miles from the apartment in Solingen, near Cologne and Duesseldorf, where her three girls and two boys were dying.

The mother’s sixth and eldest son, 11-year-old Marcel, was unharmed and is believed to have taken the train with his mother after the crime before parting ways. It is believed that he traveled to his grandmother’s house.

The dead girls were 1, 2 and 3 years old, and the boys between 6 and 8 years old, the German news agency dpa reported. A police source told RTL that they were poisoned with tablets.

There was no immediate official information on the causes of death or possible motive.

The bodies were found after the children’s grandmother, who lives 60 kilometers away, notified police on Thursday afternoon, said the region’s top security official, Herbert Reul.

Police said they had been unable to contact the children’s father.

Police said the children’s grandmother alerted them to the tragedy at 2:00 p.m. and ambulances rushed to the apartment in Solingen.

The rescuers themselves were said to be traumatized by what they found in the building and also shocked by the condition of the apartment.

One report said rescuers had tried to resuscitate the children, but were too late to save their lives.

It is unclear if the surviving child witnessed anything that happened in the apartment.

Stefan Weiand, a police spokesman at the home, said it was a “tragic situation” and added that the mother was not yet in a position to be questioned.

“We assume that a crime was committed. We cannot say how and why it happened,” he told WDR broadcaster.