*Woman throws children from 24th floor*

 From correspondents in Hong Kong

October 15, 2007 02:28pm
Article from: Reuters

A WOMAN is believed to have tied up her two children and thrown them
from a 24th floor flat in Hong Kong before killing herself in a tragedy
that has renewed calls for improved social welfare.

The 36-year-old woman, surnamed Mak, her 12-year old daughter and
nine-year-old son were found dead early yesterday beside the block of
flats in the northern Tin Shui Wai district near the border with China.

A suicide note was found in the flat.

The case has been classified as a suspected murder-suicide.

"The hands and feet of the little girl were tied up and the little boy's
hands were tied up," police spokesman Albert Ng was quoted as saying in
the South China Morning Post.

The woman, a new immigrant wife from mainland China, had a history of
mental illness.

The family had been on social welfare, with Mrs Mak's unemployed Hong
Kong husband in hospital with cancer.

Dubbed a "social time bomb", the district of Tin Shui Wai has been beset
by a string of domestic violence tragedies.

In 2004, a man stabbed his mainland Chinese wife and two young daughters
to death before killing himself.

Last year, three women in their 30s committed suicide together.