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Police comfort a distressed woman at the scene where eight children were found dead. Photo: AFP

Update | Mother arrested over stabbings of eight children as Australia 'shocked' by second tragedy

Neighbours say they heard fighting inside the house on the morning of the killings but police deny it was a "problem home", according to local media reports.

Australian police said today they had arrested a mother over the fatal stabbings of eight children in the northern city of Cairns, as vigils were held to mourn the tragedy.

The woman, believed to be the mother of seven of the children, has not been charged, but Queensland Police said she was assisting them with their inquiries. The eighth victim was the woman’s niece.

The woman was found at the scene – her home in the Cairns suburb of Manoora – with stab wounds to her upper body and was brought to hospital.

“The 37-year-old mother of several of the children involved in this incident has been arrested for murder overnight and is currently under police guard at the Cairns Base Hospital,” detective inspector Bruno Asnicar told reporters.

I heard her fighting with someone this morning at about 4am. I last saw her about 6am, then it was quiet
Neighbour

“She’s stable and being looked after,” Asnicar said, adding she was “awake... lucid and speaking”.

“At this stage we’re not looking for anybody else. We’re comfortable that the community at large is safe,” he added.

Officers have not revealed the cause of death of the children, aged between 18 months and 14 years, but said knives were found at the house where the bodies were found.

The dead children were reportedly discovered by the mother’s 20-year-old son when he arrived at the house on Friday morning, according to Lisa Thaiday, who said she was the injured woman’s cousin.

Reports said a woman was heard screaming in the house on Thursday night, with Brisbane’s saying she was heard to shout: “Don’t let them take away from us. God bless us. Forgive me for what I’ll do.”

One neighbour told the paper the woman was having “a bad night” on Thursday. “I heard her fighting with someone this morning [Friday local time] at about 4am,” she said. “I last saw her about 6am, then it was quiet.

“I saw her moving stuff out of the house yesterday. She was putting furniture and stuff out the front on the street, giving stuff away to family and friends,” the neighbour said. “She said she was changing her life. She wasn’t well but she loved those kids.”

A coroner was conducting autopsies to determine the causes of death, and police were continuing to comb through the house for evidence.

“They’re looking to establish 100 per cent what happened in that house when these offences were committed,” Asnicar said.

He dismissed rumours that the house had been the subject of calls from the Department of Social Services. “It’s not a problem house as has been speculated,” he said. “This is an ordinary neighbourhood – a lot of good people, a lot of kids in the area. This is something that has caught everybody by surprise. It’s just an absolutely tragic thing.”

The killings have rocked Australia, which is still reeling from a dramatic siege in a central Sydney cafe this week. On Monday, a gunman burst into the cafe in the heart of the city and took 18 hostages. Two hostages were dead along with the gunman after police stormed in 16 hours later in a bid to end the siege. Police had earlier said there were 17 hostages in the cafe, but revised the number after a new count.

In Cairns, flowers and teddy bears were laid near the crime scene and church services were held overnight.

“The news out of Cairns is heartbreaking,” Prime Minister Tony Abbott said in a statement. “All parents would feel a gut-wrenching sadness at what has happened. This is an unspeakable crime. These are trying days for our country.”

Torres Shire Council Mayor Pedro Stephen said the entire region was grieving. “It’s like a bomb has gone off,” he said. “Everyone is in shock.”

A 13-year-old girl who is friends with one of the children that lived in the house said she had walked her friend home on Thursday night after shopping and had met the mother, who had given her money for a taxi ride home.

“She was saying stuff about God and other stuff,” she told the Australian Associated Press. “She said: ‘Papa God gave me the power to do anything’.”

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