The corpses of two young children were found in the refrigerator of their home in a southeastern French town on Thursday morning, alongside their mother, who had suffered “a violent death”, according to a local prosecutor.

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French police on Thursday found the bodies of a baby and a small child in a fridge in an apartment where they also discovered the bloodied corpse of their mother, officials said.

"A hunt is under way for the perpetrator of these acts," said prosecutor Matthieu Bourrette, without confirming local newspaper reports from the southeastern town of Vienne that the suspect is the father of the children.

Authorities found the three-month baby girl and her five-year-old sister in the fridge-freezer. Their 26-year-old mother was discovered in the living room. Bourrette said that the mother “had died a violent death,” adding that an autopsy would be carried out Friday.

The authorities were alerted to the scene by the children’s grandmother on Thursday morning.

(FRANCE 24 with wires)

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