Five persons including four young children of Sri Lankan origin were killed in a suspected family dispute outside Paris on Saturday, as French police investigate what sparked the violence, AFP news agency reported.

The dead, reportedly from a family of Sri Lankan origin, were found together in a room at a property in the eastern Paris suburb of Noisy-Le-Sec.

The child victims were between two and 14 years old, a police source told AFP.

Three more people were found badly injured at the property after what the local prosecutor’s office said appeared to be a violent family disagreement.

The source said it appeared the victims had been stabbed to death, adding that the line of enquiry involved a family dispute “whose circumstances have still to be determined.”

“They were an ordinary, exemplary family. I can’t believe it,” said Olivier Sarrabeyrouse, the local mayor who had previously taught some of the victims.

The three injured — including a potential instigator of the violence — were hospitalised, the prosecutor’s office said, adding that two adolescents were also slightly hurt.

A local cafe proprietor told AFP that police had gone to the family’s home only last week after a dispute.