Story highlights All 8 bodies were wrapped in towels and placed inside plastic bags, police say

Prosecutor: 45-year-old woman authorities are looking for is the babies' presumed mother

The bodies are in poor condition, the state prosecutor adds

(CNN) The bodies of eight babies have been found wrapped in towels and inside plastic bags in an apartment in Germany's Bavaria state, police said Friday -- a gruesome discovery that spurred authorities to hunt for the woman who last lived there as they try to explain why and how this happened.

A woman in the town of Wallenfels called authorities Thursday afternoon after finding one body, said Jurgen Stadter, a police spokesman based about 30 miles west in Coburg.

Authorities went to the apartment and found six additional corpses, Bavarian police said Friday. The same agency reported later in the day on its website that another newborn's body had been found -- and, like the seven others, it was wrapped in a towel and placed in a plastic bag.

Martin Dippold, a state prosecutor in Coburg, did not say exactly where the various babies' bodies were found, their estimated ages, their presumed cause of death or how long ago they'd likely died.

Yet Dippold did say, "The (bodies) are in poor condition."

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