India, Mumbai: Today, police said, a 35 year old man allegedly murdered 14 members of his family including seven children with a butcher’s knife before committing suicide outside India’s financial capital of Mumbai. Police added, the attack happened after family members gathered late on Saturday at one of their homes in Thane, some 32 kilometres (20 miles) from Mumbai, for a family function.

A Thane police spokesman, Gajanan Laxman Kabdule, told AFP, “The attacker, Hasnin Anwar Warekar, hung himself after slitting the throats of all other family members including his parents”. The sole survivor of the attack, Warekar’s sister, was taken to hospital after neighbours heard her screaming for help after midnight and alerted police. Kabdule added,  “We still haven’t been able to speak with the attacker’s 21-year-old sister, the lone survivor of the attack, who is in deep trauma at a city hospital”.

Warekar attacked his family after apparently lacing their food with a sedative, according to several local media reports. But the Indian Express newspaper said the chartered accountant stabbed his victims after they went to bed, having all decided to spend the night at the house. “Prima facie evidence suggests that the accused bolted all the doors of the house and murdered his family while they were asleep with a knife that we found near his body,” Ashutosh Dumbre, joint commissioner of Thane police, was quoted saying. Kabdule said he could not confirm whether the victims had been sedated, saying investigators were awaiting medical test results.