A 27-year-old woman and her two children, aged one and four, were found dead inside their rented home in Bengaluru’s Bagalagunte area on Thursday evening, in what police are investigating as a suspected murder-suicide.

Neighbours alerted authorities after noticing the family unresponsive for several hours. On arrival, police discovered all three bodies hanging inside a room.  The deceased have been identified as Vijayalakshmi and her two children. The family hailed from Raichur district and had been living in Bengaluru, where Vijayalakshmi’s husband worked in a local shopping mall.

Preliminary investigation suggests that the mother may have strangled her children before taking her own life by hanging from a ceiling fan.  No suicide note has been found. The motive remains unclear.