Egypt: Man attacks wife, kills three children and commits suicide

In a tragic case of infanticide, a man in the North of Egypt committed suicide after stabbing his wife, before killing his three children, according to The New Arab, September 20.

Described as being in his late thirties, the man first attacked and stabbed his wife in Naburah, Dakahlia Governorate, in a home appliance store. The wife was taken to hospital to undergo surgery in the city of Mansoura, though it remains unclear at the time of this report if the woman survived or sadly succumbed to her injuries after she was stabbed 16 times.

After the fierce attack on the woman who is also said to be in her thirties, the man then travelled home to their apartment where is reported to have murdered his three children aged 12 and 7, with the youngest being just 4 years old.

Although the details of their deaths remain unconfirmed, some reports have said the children-a girl and two boys-were strangled to death.

On the man’s Facebook account he is said to have made a final post, mourning the loss of his children with a photo, before fleeing the town to Talkha were he proceeded to climb onto a railway bridge and throw himself in front of a train, which resulted in his death.

The crime was reported to the police, who then discovered the bodies of the three children at the couple’s apartment.

The woman is reported to be the man’s second wife, and was not the mother of the three children.

Some Egyptian media outlets have gone as far as to share a recording of a phone call between the man and the children’s grandmother-who was left in schock-where he explained that they had “died” and that she should go to the apartment.

Witnesses in the area say screams and cries for help could be heard, which alerted them to a crime that had taken place.

Accord to the media outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, Egyptian police are now launching an investigation “to uncover the motive, determine the sequence of events, and precisely determine the weapon used in the crime.”

The New Arab, Maghrebi.org