French teenager kills parents, brothers in Corsica

A French teenager shot and killed his parents and twin brothers, apparently while they were asleep in their home on the island of Corsica, police said yesterday.

The 16-year-old boy was arrested after he told a friend who then alerted police about the quadruple homicide.

The teenager used his father's shotgun to kill both his parents, aged 43 and 45, and 10-year-old brothers at the house in the town of Albitreccia in southern Corsica on Wednesday.

Investigators said they had yet to establish a motive for the crime.

"He has not given any explanation, he is tired and in shock," said police colonel Hubert Deininger.

The teenager did provide investigators with information allowing them to recover the gun that belonged to his father.

Investigators were looking at the teenager's psychological profile.

Mr Deininger noted he had "no criminal record, lived with his parents, in an average family."

The boy turned up with a relative at a police station in the early hours yesterday after apparently wandering the streets of the Porticcio area, meeting several people including a friend to whom he confessed, said deputy prosecutor Valerie Tavernier.