Couple quizzed after babies' remains found buried in cellar

Police in Germany today said they had arrested a married couple after finding the remains of two newborn babies sealed in concrete in their house.

Officers assisted by a sniffer dog uncovered the bodies yesterday after a man approached police on New Year’s Eve and told them that he had buried the babies after their birth in the early and mid-1990s.

Police were carrying out post-mortems on the bodies, found in the cellar of the house in the town of Altenburg, in eastern Germany, to try to determine the cause of death.

The names of the 48-year-old man and his 44-year-old wife were not released.

The case comes amid an outcry in Germany over several instances where parents have allegedly killed or seriously neglected young children.

A woman from another part of eastern Germany faces manslaughter charges after the bodies of nine infants were found in flower pots at her parents’ home last year.

The government plans to tighten checks on at-risk children in an attempt to pre-empt abuse.