Salem:Driven by poverty, a woman killed her three children at Ayodyapattinam near here and made a vain attempt to commit suicide, police said.

The 27-year-old woman, Jayalaskhmi, first threw the two boys, aged seven and four, into a well and then tried to jump in it with her four-month-old baby. But she survived as her clothes got entangled in some wild growth in the well. The baby, however, fell from her hands.

She climbed out of the well and informed her relatives about the incident. Police were informed and the bodies recovered.

The family has been living in extreme conditions as her 30-year-old husband, a handloom worker, was unemployed for a long time, police said.
Source : DNA