A Russian mother threw her four and seven-year-old sons off a 15th floor balcony because she was “fed up” with having children.

Galina Ryabkova, 30, was arrested shortly after the incident, which took place on Sunday at the Moscow tower block in which she and her family lived.

The family live on the eighth floor of the building, but Ryabkova is believed to have taken the children up to the 15th floor before throwing them off. Her husband was away on business at the time.

Neighbours were alerted to the incident by the sounds of the childrens’ bodies hitting the ground.

Russia Today quotes one neighbour, Tatiana Gumanyova, as saying: “I was standing near the window and heard a loud smack… I did not pay attention, thought that the child just stumbled and fell. But then I heard one more smack.”

Another neighbour said: “My wife woke me up and said that there were children falling out. We ran out and saw two children lying on the ground in front of the main door. Just at that time their mother was leaving the building. We asked her if these were her children and she replied, emotionlessly, ‘Yes, I threw them away,’”

The New York Daily News reported that CCTV footage of the incident shows one of the children hitting the ground just out of shot of the camera, before Galina Ryabkova is seen coming downstairs.

Looking emotionless and wearing jeans and a white t-shirt, Ryabkova then calmly walks through the lobby of the building as shocked neighbours question and surround her to prevent her escaping before the police arrive.

Sergey Markin, the Investigative Committee spokesperson, told RIA Novosti that while being interviewed Ryabkova behaved "oddly but calmly" and said that nobody needed her. She claimed that she was "fed up with children" and had "decided to get rid of them", adding that her children were now “angels in heaven”.