4 young children and their mother were killed in their French home. The father is in custody

PARIS – Four children between nine months and 10 years old and their mother were killed in their apartment east of Paris, in what local authorities called an exceptionally violent crime. The children’s father was arrested Tuesday and is the primary suspect. Neighbors spotted a pool of blood outside the family’s door on Christmas Day and alerted police, who discovered the five bodies, Prosecutor Jean-Baptiste Bladier told reporters in the city of Meaux. The mother and two daughters, ages 7 and 10, were stabbed several times overnight from Sunday to Monday, he said. The couple’s two sons, ages 9 months and 4 years old, were suffocated or drowned. The prosecutor described a small, blood-stained apartment in extreme disarray. Flowers, a…