German father kills his two children before jumping off a bridge

A father in Germany has killed his two children before throwing himself off a bridge.

Police in the small town of Unterensingen near Stuttgart made the discovery early on 21 April, after the father was spotted standing by the side of a viaduct.

According to the police, the 45-year-old father killed his two children – a four-year-old boy and an 8-year-old girl – before driving to the Aichtal viaduct at around 6.45am.

A woman had seen the man standing at the top of the bridge and immediately called emergency services, but by the time they had reached it, he had already jumped to his death.

According to the Stuttgarter Zeitung the reasoning is yet to be confirmed, but one theory is that he was experiencing marital problems with his wife, whom he suspected may have been having an affair.

Emergency services went to the home of the father to find the two children already dead, the exact cause is yet to be confirmed.

The small town was crawling with emergency services as police and medial officials combed the area and his home, in the centre of the small town with a population of less then 5,000.

Neighbours described the family as "a picture-book family", the real reasons for the tragedy are set to come out in the coming days and weeks.

Renowned police psychologist Adolf Gallwitz from the Villingen-Schwenningen police academy explained that women who take their children to death are mostly depressed and want to leave the children "not alone in the" evil world "or the" evil man."

"Men are fundamentally different", explains the police psychologist. They want to punish their partners in the worst possible way because of misconduct, by taking from them the best thing they could have – their children.

The mayor of the town was on holiday at the time, but the deputy mayor and other officials were unable to comment further on the incident.