Their 31-year-old mother was dead in the living room and the body of a 30-year-old man lay in another room.

The children - all aged under 11 - alerted neighbours on a council estate in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.

Children's shock

Detectives said they were not looking for anyone else in connection with the deaths.

A Cambridgeshire Police spokesman said: "It is almost impossible to imagine the shock the three children must have suffered.

"Whatever the explanation, our deepest sympathies are with those children at this most ghastly of times.

"Even the most experienced police officers who have attended the scene have been visibly upset by what they found."

A Home Office pathologist will carry out post mortem examinations on the bodies on Monday.