A man and a young woman were found dead in Ghaxaq yesterday morning in what police sources said was a murder followed by suicide, only some 12 hours after lawyer Michael Grech was found murdered in Gozo.

Police investigations revealed that Joseph Attard, a 60-year old man from Ghaxaq but living in Paola, first shot dead 20-year-old Katia Farrugia, of Paola, and then turned the gun on himself.

As the search for clues in connection with Tuesday night's murder in Gozo continued yesterday morning, the police were informed that there was a dead man in a remote area known as tal-Qattus.

The police said the man was found slumped next to a Hyundai Stellar in an alley close to a pumping station at about 11 a.m. The young woman's body was on the passenger's seat.

It is believed they had been dead for about two hours.

A twin-barrelled shotgun was found in the car.

This is the fifth murder this year, in stark contrast to last year when no murders were reported.

Police historian Eddie Attard said murders followed by suicides were not new to Maltese criminal history and neither was it that unusual to have more than one murder take place within 24 hours.

On September 19, 1978, a 22-year old woman was killed by her husband, who then went to the Cospicua police station reporting that his wife had died in Paola. He then ran away from the police station, went to his uncle's house and jumped from a height of three storeys.

In June 1996, a woman was killed by her husband in San Gwann and then both the man and his mother-in-law committed suicide.

On November 3, 1999, a woman and her daughter were killed at Qrendi and the husband died later in hospital after he was critically injured while wrestling with one of the victims to take hold of a shotgun.

Three murders were reported on November 12, 2001. Policeman Roger Debattista was shot while on guard duty at a bank in Qormi. That evening, the police were investigating the disappearance of a mother and her daughter. They were later found dead in a well in Birzebbuga on the following day.

In April 1986 a man had killed his wife and then committed suicide by hanging himself while in prison.