Man axes family

Investigators yesterday discovered the bodies of five people after a man turned up at a Vienna police station and calmly explained that he had killed his family to spare them the shame of his financial ruin, authorities said.

Police officers found the bodies of the man's wife and 7-year-old daughter in his home in an affluent part of the Austrian capital and determined both had been killed with an ax, police said.

Authorities also discovered the bodies of his parents and father-in-law in Upper Austria province, in the cities of Ansfelden and Linz.

The man, identified only as a 39-year-old self-employed public relations consultant, said he wanted to spare his family the shame of financial ruin he caused through speculative financial dealings, criminal investigator Thomas Stecher said.

(China Daily 05/15/2008 page10)