A Berlin man was detainedto day on suspicion of killing his wife and cutting her body to pieces after a row in an apartment where police later found six children, authorities said.

"Upon entering the apartment, officers discovered the partly dismembered body of the 30-year-old tenant and detained the 32-year-old husband after he attempted to resist them," police said in a statement.

Neighbours alerted the authorities after hearing loud noises from the apartment in the early morning hours.

The six children, who were apparently unscathed, were handed over to social services, police said. They were not able to confirm that all six belonged to the couple.

A witness told local public radio station RBB that the man, who she said was Turkish, had climbed onto the roof of the five-storey apartment building and held up the decapitated head of the woman in one hand and a knife in the other.

She said she had earlier seen the man strike and kick his wife.