Triple suicide tragedy in France

The three women threw themselves under high-speed trains

A mother and her adult daughter, devastated by the suicide of another daughter, have killed themselves on the same railway track in southern France.

They went to a section of a high-speed TGV line near the town of Sollies-Pont, near Toulon, where the elder daughter killed herself in July.

Both they and the father of the family had been regarded by local officials as a suicide risk after the death.

They were placed in psychiatric care for three weeks.

After being released, the three members of the unnamed family returned to their native region in northern France, Lorraine, but came back to Sollies-Pont a few weeks ago, town mayor Andre Garron told AFP news agency.

Four urns

The mother and daughter, aged 56 and 22, left a letter for the father, who was at work, before they went to the Paris-Nice railway track late on Wednesday afternoon, local newspaper Nice-Matin reports.

According to the newspaper, they sought out the same spot where the elder daughter, 28, killed herself, and hurled themselves under a passing train.

The elder daughter had been receiving psychiatric help for several years at the time of her death.

A close friend is now looking after the father, a 58-year-old businessman, who reportedly told police after the double suicide this week that he might also kill himself "not today but maybe tomorrow".

Nice-Matin reports that after the elder daughter's suicide, the family bought three extra funeral urns, making clear their intention to die collectively.

Before that tragedy struck, the newspaper adds, this "discreet, socially integrated family had never given rise to any talk about itself".