Police in Tula, a small city some 200km to the south of Moscow, have detained a man on suspicion of the murder of a family of five, including three children.
The bodies of the victims – a thirty-something woman, her three boys aged four, five and nine, and their grandmother – were discovered stacked up in a bathroom on Monday evening after neighbors complained of an unpleasant smell. Police believe they were killed on the night of July 25.
Initial reports suggested sect involvement or a business dispute.
The murders have made headlines in Russia, and echo last year’s killings in a village in south Russia’s Krasnodar region, when 12 people, including four children, were slaughtered by a criminal gang.