Several babies found dead in German flat

Police find probable total of seven dead infants in Bavarian town and say forensic investigation could take time

 German police have so far been unable to question the previous resident of the apartment where the bodies were found. Photograph: AFP/Getty

BERLIN: (AFP) The bodies of “probably seven” babies have been found in a flat in a Bavarian town.

German police said a local woman found the body of one baby on Thursday afternoon at the apartment in Wallenfels, near the Czech border, and called the emergency services. Officers then found several more bodies in a room at the property.

“Officers found several bodies of infants. The police and prosecutor ... believe that there are probably seven dead,” the police said. They have as yet been unable to question the previous resident of the apartment, a 45-year-old woman.

Forensic investigators were examining the corpses, police said, but the process could be lengthy due to the poor condition of some of the bodies.

Detectives revealed the find late on Thursday, with local press reporting that two bodies of babies were uncovered in the afternoon.

Germany has seen several infanticide cases in recent years.

Last May, a woman was sentenced to three years and eight months in prison for killing two of her children and hiding them in a freezer.

In October 2013, in Bavaria, the bodies of two babies from the 1980s were found during construction works.

And in the worst post-war infanticide case the country has seen, a 42-year-old woman was convicted in 2008 of killing eight of her newborn babies.

It was unclear how long the babies had been dead or who, if anyone, was living at the property at the time of the discovery.