REGENSBURG (Germany): A mother has confessed to killing her infant sons over Christmas, police in southern Germany said on Wednesday, the latest in a series of such killings that have shocked the country.

Officers arrested the 37-year-old mother on Christmas Day in the town of Beratzhausen, near Regensburg, Bavaria, after the grandmother found the children dead in the bath, said a police spokesman.

The children’s faces and necks bore signs of violence. Their mother was sitting in another room.

The mother had already confessed to the killings but had so far offered no explanation, said police. She is due to appear in court.

The father, 45, who was at work at the time the children were killed, has been ruled out as a suspect.

The case is the latest in a series of recent infanticides that have shocked Germany and prompted a series of federal measures to improve social services and child welfare.

Last Wednesday, the Chancellor Angela Merkel approved a raft of measures to protect families, at a crisis meeting over a series of grisly child murders blamed on parents.—AFP