Father throws his two children off hotel balcony

A man threw his two young children off a balcony on the 15th floor of a landmark Miami Beach hotel in Florida today and then jumped himself, police said. All three were killed.

The children were 4 and 8 years old and the family was on holiday from Alton, Illinois, said police spokesman Bobby Hernandez.

The mother of the children told police she and her husband had been having marital problems for the past six months, Hernandez said. Police did not immediately release the identities of the family members.

The woman heard one of her children screaming from an adjacent room in the Loews Hotel, and when she walked into the room she saw her husband going off the balcony, Hernandez said.

She looked over the railing and saw her husband and her two children lying on a mezzanine roof that is about two floors above the ground.

People in neighbouring rooms said they did not hear any noises, Hernandez said.

A Loews Hotel spokeswoman in Miami would not comment.