Egyptian kills mother, wife, 3 daughters to remarry

Cairo: An Egyptian man has admitted to having killed his mother, wife and three daughters, to marry another woman, according to prosecutors.

In investigations, the suspect, a farm worker, said he had murdered his family after having an affair with a married woman who told him she wants to divorce her husband to marry him. He told investigators that he had made up his mind to get rid of his family.

The crime, which took place in Egypt’s southern province of Assiut, came to attention of authorities after the fourth daughter survived her father’s attempt to kill her during his murder spree.

The 13-year-old survivor told prosecutors that her father had attacked her in the kitchen and put a rope around her neck with the intention of killing her. She fell unconscious and her father thought she was dead.

After fatally strangling the five others, the man set the house on fire, using a gas cylinder. Their bodies were found charred.

After his arrest, the suspect admitted to the murder and was taken to the house where he enacted the crime, the prosecution said in a statement.

He was remanded to custody for four days pending further questioning. Neither the suspect’s name nor age was revealed.

In recent years, Egyptian media has reported a rise in family killings in the country.

Earlier this year, a psychologically ill woman fatally threw her two children from the four-floor balcony of her house north of Cairo before she leaped after them. The 33-year-old mother died later of injuries at a local hospital.

Last year, a criminal court sentenced a medical doctor to death by hanging after he was convicted of killing his wife and three children in the Nile Delta province of Kafr Al Shaikh.