Remains of four babies found in Berlin flat

The remains of four babies have been found in a high-rise apartment in Berlin, the latest in a series of infanticide cases to hit Germany in recent years.

Police said in a statement that a man had uncovered the remains while cleaning out the flat of a woman who died in July after plunging from the 12th floor of her building in an apparent suicide.

The woman, who was 46-years old and, according to German media, nine months pregnant at the time of her death, is believed to have been the mother of all four dead babies, police said.

Germany has been hit by several similar cases in recent years. In March a 29-year old woman who killed her two baby girls and hid their remains in her flat was sentenced to eight years in prison.

In 2006, a woman named Sabine Hilschinz received a 15-year sentence for killing eight of her babies between 1992 and 1998 and burying them in flower pots, buckets and a fish tank on her property.

The Hilschinz case sparked a national outcry and politicians have struggled since then to find ways to prevent what appears to be developing into a worrying trend in Germany.

Some clinics, in an attempt to save the lives of unwanted children, have taken to installing heated "hatches" for desperate mothers, which set off an alarm when babies are deposited.