Europe News

Berlin family died due to accidental gas poisoning, not crime

Jul 26, 2011, 12:29 GMT

Berlin - A Berlin family of six, including four small children, died due to carbon monoxide poisoning, police said Tuesday.

Police said the deaths were the result of an accident, ruling out earlier suspicions that the poisoning could have been a deliberate act.

The bodies of four children and their mother, 27, were found in a Berlin apartment on Monday, along with that of a man who was not the children's father.

The police could not say how the poisonous gas had entered the apartment. Carbon monoxide is often released from defective ovens or gas heating.

The children were aged one, four, five and six. The police were alerted by their biological father, after he had not been able to contact the family for several days.