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Photo for illustrative purposes Image Credit: Pixabay

Vienna: An Austrian man killed his ex-girlfriend, three members of her family and her new boyfriend in a pre-dawn shooting spree Sunday at an upscale ski resort, police said.

The 25-year-old man then gave himself up to police, they said.

His relationship with the 19-year-old had ended two months earlier, but at around four in the morning he turned up at the chalet where she and her family were staying at Kitzbuehel in the Austrian Alps.

After the teenager's father turned him away, he returned to his own house, grabbed his brother's legally owned pistol and went back to the chalet.

When his ex-girlfriend's father opened the door again at around 5.30 am, he shot him, before going on to shoot her brother and her mother, according to the account he gave police.

He climbed a balcony to reach his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend, who were sleeping in a locked apartment inside the house.

He then surrendered at the nearest police station, telling officers he killed five people.

Of the 73 victims of homicide in Austria last year, 41 were women, according to interior ministry statistics. And half of all homicides in 2018 were carried out by perpetrators who knew the victims.

Last Thursday, a 28-year-old man tried to kill his ex-wife with a homemade bomb, which instead blew up in his face, seriously injuring him.