The bodies of a 28-year-old woman and her three children were found hanging inside their house in Pune on Sunday, police said.

The three children -- two girls and a boy -- were found hanging with a nylon rope from a single hook in the ceiling, while their mother Fatima Akram allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself with a cloth in another room, a police officer said.

They were from Karnataka and had recently shifted to the Pimpri-Chinchwad area in Pune.

The incident came to light when the woman's husband Mr Akram returned home on Sunday evening and found the door latched from inside. He got no response despite repeated knocks on the door.

He then informed the police, who broke open the door and found the bodies.

The police suspected that the woman might have taken this step due to financial woes. Mr Akram, who was a fruit seller, is unemployed at the moment.

"Akram had incurred heavy losses in his fruit business and the woman's father also had died recently. Prima facie she was in a state of depression. We are probing the case," police officer Shankar Awtade said.

Police officer Shankar Awtade said that no suicide note was found from the house.

