Dubai: A Tunisian man allegedly killed his wife and two sons by slitting their throats using a kitchen knife and then committed suicide, local media reported.
The heinous crime took place in Bardo district in the centre of Tunis.
Media reports said one of the sons had recently obtained a high school diploma. However, the killer’s daughter escaped certain death, as she was not at home at the time of the crime.
It is not yet clear why the man killed his family but initial investigations suggest that he was suffering from psychological disorder.
Over the past few years, Tunisia has seen a spike in violent crime attributed to weakening family ties and early school dropouts.
Sociologist Mohamed Al Jouili warned of the danger of paving the way for the emergence of a new pattern of crimes, which are not restricted to convicted criminals. “The time span between a simple quarrel and a murder has become very short, which carries negative connotations that invite us to look for the underlying causes,” he said.
“In addition to the usual causes of crime such as unemployment, marginalisation and poverty, the changing consumption patterns of society have had a great influence on the increase in violence in Tunisia.”
The decline of social institutions responsible for raising and educating the youth in exchange for the rise of a culture that prioritises consumption, the sociologist pointed out, leads some individuals to commit crimes in order to obtain material benefits.
