Seattle man kills his 5 children

UNITED STATES - A man and his five children are dead in what police believe was a murder-suicide at a mobile home in Washington state.

Police suspect the father shot and killed his children, ages seven to 16, before taking his own life Saturday.

The bodies of four girls and a boy, who was the youngest of the siblings, were found inside their home at the Deer Run mobile park in Pierce County, 70 kilometres south of Seattle.

The body of the 35-year-old father was found in his still-running car, 30 kilometres from his home.

He had apparently killed himself with a rifle, Auburn Police Sgt. Scott Near said. No note was left in the car.

The mother's aunt, Penny Flansburg, identified the couple as Angela and James Harrison and the children as Maxine, Samantha, Heather, Jamie and James.

The father worked as a diesel mechanic, and the mother works at Wal-Mart, Flansburg said.

A classmate of the eldest daughter said she told him Friday night that her parents had fought and her father had followed her mother, trying to persuade her to return after she left the home.

This latest mass murder is part of a string of mass murders in the USA.

Sat 4 April: Father shoots his five children, then himself, near Seattle.

Sat 4 April: Gunman kills three policemen in Pittsburgh before being wounded and captured.

Fri 3 April: Gunman kills 13 people at an immigration centre in Binghamton, New York state, then shoots himself.

Sun 29 March: Gunman kills seven elderly residents and a nurse at a nursing home in Carthage, North Carolina, then is shot and wounded himself.

Sun 29 March: Man kills five relatives and himself in Santa Clara, California.