Four dead and another injured as family jump from high-rise building in horror incident

Four people have died after a family jumped from a seven-story building in the lakeside city of Montreux in Switzerland.

According to reports, the family of five is believed to have jumped from the high-rise building after police arrived at the home to execute an arrest relating to the home-schooling of a child.

Authorities have opened an investigation “to determine the exact circumstances and reasons for this tragedy”.

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Police officers confirmed the people involved in the incident were all from the same family and were all French citizens.

In a statement, police identified those who died in the tragedy as a 40-year-old man, his 41-year-old wife, her twin sister and the couple’s eight-year-old daughter.

It was confirmed that the couple’s 15-year-old son was also seriously injured and hospitalised after the jump. His condition is described as serious.

A regional police spokesperson, Alexandre Bisenz, told The Associated Press news agency that the group were found at around 7am (06:00 GMT) on Thursday outside a building near Casino Barriere.

Forensic teams have examined the balcony of the seventh-floor apartment where the family jumped from as part of the ongoing investigation.

Police and emergency teams also erected white tents at the scene.

The Mail Online reported that neighbours said a quiet family of two adults in their forties, two teenagers and a grandmother lived in the apartment together.

Neighbour Claude Rouiller told Swiss newspaper Le Temps that the family home was quiet.

He said: “We heard nothing from their home, the father never said hello in the hallway and ordered many packages almost daily.”

Mr Rouiller also commented that a strong smell of incense had been coming from the family’s apartment for the past few days.

Another resident, who lives on the first floor of the apartment building, said they heard a “thud” at around 7am on Thursday morning.

The neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, said he went outside to investigate and saw the bodies.

He said: “I thought it was a bad film, I couldn’t fix the image for more than a few seconds”.

In their statement, police said two officers had knocked on the door of an apartment and identified themselves.

They said: “Unable to make contact with the possible occupants, they left the place.

“In the meantime, a witness called the police to report that people had fallen from the balcony of an apartment.”

Police spokesman Jean-Christophe Sauterel told the RTS public broadcaster: “We do not know yet whether they fell or if this drama was due to other circumstances.”

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