Couple held after eight babies found dead in France

Members of the French Gendarmerie and sniffing dogs arrive at the crime scene in Villers-au-Tertre, near Lille, northern France, 28 July 2010, where a couple have been arrested after eight newborn babies were discovered hidden in their house and buried in their garden. Police made the gruesome discovery using sniffer dogs. All of the children are believed to have been born to the man and woman, who are, according to a source close to the inquiry, in their mid forties. (EPA)

Published Wednesday, July 28, 2010

By AFP

French police detained a couple after the bodies of eight new-born babies were found in a house and in the garden of another home in a northern village, officials said on Wednesday.

Police with sniffer dogs were continuing their search in Villers-au-Tertre after arresting the pair, both in their 40s, on Tuesday.

Neighbours said the new owners of a house in the village had called the police after they found the bones of infants in the garden of their new home.

Police inquiries led to another house in the village around a kilometre away where more babies' bodies were found, neighbours said.

The prosecutors' office in the nearby city of Douai was to open a judicial inquiry on Thursday which was expected to lead in turn to the couple being charged, a judicial source said.

Prosecutors were to give a news conference about the macabre discovery on Thursday.

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