A Syrian asylum seeker is on trial for allegedly throwing his three children out of a first floor window in Germany because his wife wanted greater freedom.

The 36-year-old man has been accused of attempted murder after his two daughters, aged one and seven, and five-year-old son were injured at refugee accommodation near Bonn.

Police arrived at the scene in February to find the two elder children suffering broken bones and skull fractures, with the baby girl left with bruising and a liver contusion after landing on her brother.

According to an indictment seen by Germany’s DPA news agency, the suspect admitted the crime and said it stemmed from anger with his wife.

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Prosecutors said he could not accept she “no longer wished to accept the roles they had at home, and did not want to put up with everything he wanted anymore” after fleeing to Europe, according to a translation by The Local.

The suspect had been put under a 10-day restraining order after previously attacking his wife in January but moved back in, before launching the assault on their children on 1 February.

He is also accused of using a metal saucepan to hit his wife in the face on the same day, sparking an additional charge of aggravated assault.

Bonn Police said officers were called to the refugee accommodation, in a former Chinese restaurant in Lohmar, at 4.30pm local time on the day.

Witnesses said they had seen three children thrown from the first floor windows.

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All three were taken to hospital by road and air ambulances for treatment for what police described as serious injuries.

The defendant left Syria alone in 2014, travelling through Turkey, Bulgaria and France before arriving in Germany last year, where his family joined him.

His trial started in Bonn on Tuesday and was expected to last several weeks.

Germany has accepted applications from more than a million asylum seekers, with refugee accommodation opened up in disused buildings and schools to accommodate them.

Terror attacks by Isis supporters in the country and elsewhere in Europe have fuelled anti-refugee sentiment, with the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party seeing huge gains in local elections.