Flowers and stuffed toys left opposite the house where eight children
were found dead in the northern Australian city of Cairns early on
December 20, 2014. PHOTO
CAIRNS, Australia
Australian
police said Saturday they had arrested the mother of all but one of
eight children reportedly stabbed to death in the northern city of
Cairns, as vigils were held to mourn the tragedy.
Officers
have not revealed the cause of death of the children, the youngest of
which was a toddler and the oldest a teenager, but said knives were
found at the house where the bodies were discovered on Friday morning.
"The
37-year-old mother of several of the children involved in this incident
has been arrested for murder overnight and is currently under police
guard at the Cairns Base Hospital," detective inspector Bruno Asnicar
told reporters.
Flowers and teddy bears were laid near
the crime scene and church services were held overnight in Cairns,
where police said they are working closely with the Torres Strait
Islander community to which the family belonged.
Police
have confirmed the dead as four girls — aged two, 11, 12 and 14 and
four boys aged five, six, eight and nine, but said they would not name
the family for cultural reasons. In some indigenous cultures it is
considered disrespectful to say a deceased person's name.
The
woman arrested is the mother of the seven younger children and the aunt
of the 14-year-old girl. She has not been charged, but Queensland
Police said she was assisting them with their inquiries.
"She's
stable and being looked after," Asnicar said, adding that the woman,
who has stab wounds to her upper body, was "awake… lucid and speaking".
He could not say whether her wounds were self-inflicted.
The
murders have rocked Australia, which is still reeling from a dramatic
siege in a central Sydney cafe this week that left two hostages and a
gunman dead and prompted a huge outpouring of emotion.
"This
is just an ordinary neighbourhood," Asnicar said. "A lot of good
people, a lot of kids in the area and this is just something that has
caught everybody by surprise. It's absolutely tragic."
'EVERYONE IS IN SHOCK'
A
makeshift memorial has been established in a park near the crime scene,
with scores of people visiting on Saturday to leave flowers, candles
and toys in remembrance of the children.
Torres Shire Council Mayor Pedro Stephen told Australian Associated Press that the entire region was grieving.
"It's like a bomb has gone off," he said. "Everyone is in shock."
"There
will be people who have never, ever been to Cairns who will be touched
by this tragedy," added Acting Assistant Police Commissioner Paul
Taylor.
Queensland state minister Tim Nicholls, who
laid a wreath at the site, said police had not yet explained the motive
behind the killings.
"As a father myself with three
children under 15, I can only imagine the grief this community is
feeling as they come to grips with the events," he said.
The
dead children were reportedly discovered by the mother's 20-year-old
son when he arrived at the house in the Cairns suburb of Manoora on
Friday morning.
Reports said a woman was heard
screaming in the house on Thursday night, with Brisbane's Courier-Mail
saying she had shouted: "Don't let them take away from us. God bless us.
Forgive me for what I'll do."
A 13-year-old girl who
walked a friend who lived in the house home on Thursday night said she
had met the mother, who had given her money for a taxi ride home.
"She
was saying stuff about God and other stuff," she told Australian
Associated Press. "She said: 'Papa God gave me the power to do
anything'."
