Indian man kills 14 family members before suicide

A man in India killed 14 members of his family, including seven children, with a butcher’s knife before committing suicide near the city of Mumbai.

The massacre happened after family members gathered late on Saturday at one of their homes in Thane, about 32km from Mumbai, for a family function, police said.

“The attacker, Hasnin Anwar Warekar, hung himself after slitting the throats of all other family members, including his parents,” police spokesman Gajanan Laxman Kabdule told the AFP news agency.

The sole survivor of the attack – Warekar’s sister – was taken to hospital when neighbours heard her screaming for help after midnight and alerted police.

“We still haven’t been able to speak with the attacker’s 21-year-old sister, the lone survivor of the attack, who is in deep trauma at a city hospital,” Kabdule said.

Warekar, 35, attacked his family after apparently lacing their food with a sedative, according to local media reports.

But the Indian Express newspaper said the assailant stabbed his victims after they went to bed.

“Prima facie evidence suggests that the accused bolted all the doors of the house and murdered his family while they were asleep with a knife that we found near his body,” Ashutosh Dumbre, joint commissioner of Thane police, was quoted as saying.