Austria: Bodies of three babies found in house

Workers remodelling a house in western Austria found the bodies of two infants, and police at the scene discovered a third set of remains after a search, authorities said today.

Officials said the discovery was made yesterday at a multi-family dwelling in the alpine city of Innsbruck.

Construction workers were excavating the building’s cellar when they came upon the bodies, which had been stuffed into plastic bags and buried, police said.

The ages of the three infants were not immediately clear. Investigators said they were awaiting the results of autopsies on the remains to determine the cause of death. Police spokesman Walter Pupp said two of the newborns appeared to have been boys.

The discovery was reminiscent of a 2005 case in the southern Austrian city of Graz, where the bodies of four infants – two in a freezer, the other two entombed in cement-filled buckets – were found at a home.

The mother is serving a sentence for murder after pleading guilty to killing those infants.