A man hacked to death eight members of his family with an axe in Madhya Pradesh's Chhindwara district and later died by suicide, police said on Wednesday.
The murders took place late Tuesday night in the tribal village of Bodal Kachhar, over 145 km away from Chhindwara district headquarters. Police said the man was suffering from mental illnesses.
At 2.30 am, when the family was sleeping, Dinesh Gond alias Bhura went on a rampage.
He attacked his mother Siyabai, 55, wife Varsha, 23, brother Shravan Kumar, 35, and Shravan's wife Baratobai, 30. He then struck his 16-year-old sister Parvati, five-year-old nephew Krishna and nieces Sewnti (4) and Deepa (1) with the axe.
All eight of them died on the spot. He also attacked a 10-year-old neighbour who was rescued by his grandmother.
Hearing the victims' screams, neighbours entered the house. Seeing them, Dinesh fled the scene.
Later, his body was found hanging from a tree, nearly 100 metres away from the house.
The reason behind the attack is not known. Police have reached the spot and begun an investigation.
According to the locals, Dinesh's condition had worsened after his marriage.
"The accused was mentally ill and was undergoing treatment. He killed his wife, brother, sister-in-law and other members of his family (a total of eight persons) and then died by suicide. He was suffering from Schizophrenia, after consultation with doctors we came to know that a person suffering from the disease may attack people, later he realised that he committed a mistake and died by suicide. So prima facie it seems that this may have happened in this case as well, he must have realized his mistake and committed suicide. We are investigating the case," said Anil Singh Kushwaha, Inspector General of Police (IG) Jabalpur Zone.
State Chief Minister Mohan Yadav also expressed grief over the incident and said that an investigation would be done into the matter.
"I got to know that a mentally unstable person has killed 8 people of his family and then died by suicide. This is an unfortunate incident. I have asked one of our ministers Sampatiya Uikey to visit Chhindwara. She will meet the members of the family. An investigation of the incident will be done. We will do everything possible for the victims," CM Yadav said.
(With inputs from PTI)