The police in Bihar’s Banka district on Tuesday detained two people suspected of murdering three sisters, aged between 10 years and 14 years, Hindustan Times reported. The incident took place at a village in Katoria block, about 240 km from the capital Patna on Monday.

“The girls were alone at home at the time of the incident as their father worked as a labourer in West Bengal and mother had gone to a village near Jasidih in neighbouring Jharkhand state,” said Superintendent of Police Chandan Kumar Kushwaha.

The children’s mother returned home on Tuesday morning and found the house locked from outside, Kushwaha added. The neighbours subsequently broke open the lock and found the bodies. The police recovered an axe and another sharp-edged weapon that are suspected to have been used to commit the murders, News 18 Hindi reported. The girls had cut marks on their throats, besides wounds on their foreheads.

The police also suspect the girls were raped before being killed. Their bodies have been sent for autopsy.