German town in shock after man kills 2 children, wounds 1

The small town of Altenfeld in eastern Germany was in shock Thursday after a 27-year-old man killed two of his children and seriously injured a third.

German news agency dpa quoted prosecutors as saying the children's 29-year-old mother came home from a hospital stay early Thursday to find her three sons with serious stab wounds.

The 1-year-old and 4-year-old subsequently died, while a 3-year-old was taken to the hospital in a critical condition.

Police arrested the 27-year-old father, a German citizen, on suspicion of murder. He was in a hospital receiving treatment for self-inflicted wounds.

Prosecutor Anette Schmitt-ter Hell said the man's motive wasn't yet known.

Residents of Altenfeld, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) east of Frankfurt in the state of Thuringia, expressed anguish over the killings.

"We're shocked, this is all very depressing," local innkeeper Thomas Wenzel was quoted as saying.

Mayor Peter Grimm said the town, with a population of just under 1,000, had canceled plans to celebrate its 525th anniversary next week. "After what happened here, nobody is in the mood to party anymore," Grimm told dpa.