A 37-year-old woman apparently committed suicide by stabbing herself in the stomach after fatally stabbing her two daughters with a kitchen knife at their home in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, police said Wednesday.
The woman's 70-year-old father, who lives nearby, found the 10- and 6-year-old girls along with the woman lying in a pool of blood at around 7:45 a.m. when he visited his daughter's home, police said.
The three were rushed to a hospital but died of shock due to blood loss shortly after, police said.
The woman's husband, a civil servant at the Toyota Municipal Office, had left home at around 7 a.m., police said.
The mother, a psychiatric patient until late last month, started showing psychological problems several years ago, after having trouble in relationships related to activities involving the parents' and teachers' association at the elder daughter's school, police said.