Photo/Illutration Police and fire fighters on May 23 investigate a fire at a home in Tokyo’s Shinagawa Ward where a mother and her three young children were found stabbed to death. (Takeshi Komiya)

The bodies of a mother and her three young children, all bearing fatal stab wounds to the chest and neck, were discovered in a Tokyo home that had been set on fire, police said.

Police said there was one survivor, the children’s father, who is in his 40s. He lived in the house in the Togoshi district of Shinagawa Ward, even after divorcing their mother, Fuyumi Takanami, 37, this month.

The children were aged 6, 3 and 2.

A relative who lives nearby called Tokyo police around 1:30 p.m. on May 23 and said all five members of the family were dead inside the house, which was on fire.

Officers with the Metropolitan Police Department said Takanami and her three children were found in a state of cardiac arrest in the first-floor bedroom and their deaths were confirmed at the scene.

Police found a knife in the premises. The house was locked.

The man, presumed to be the father, was found collapsed and taken to a hospital where he was treated for smoke inhalation. His condition was not life threatening.

The Tokyo Fire Department said a small section of a room had burned.

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