4 young children and their mother were killed in their French home. The father is in custody

PARIS (AP) — Four children between nine months and 10 years old and their mother have been killed in their apartment east of Paris in what the local prosecutor called an exceptionally violent crime. Authorities said the children’s father was arrested Tuesday and is the primary suspect. The prosecutor said that neighbors spotted a pool of blood outside the family’s door on Christmas Day and alerted police who discovered the five bodies. The mother and two daughters were stabbed and the two sons were suffocated or drowned. The father was held in a psychiatric hospital in the past and had stabbed his wife during her third pregnancy.