Russian police detain woman after finding bodies of newborn twins in freezer

Russian police said Thursday they have detained a woman suspected of killing her newborn twins and hiding their bodies for five years in the walk-in freezer of a food store where she worked.

Police in the Sverdlovsk region said they had detained a 30-year-old woman after finding the bodies of two babies in the industrial freezer of the central grocery store in the town of Verkhnyaya Pyshma, around 1,600 kilometres (995 miles) from Moscow.

Investigators said in a statement the baby boys apparently were born alive, but died from freezing. The woman is being questioned on suspicion of murder.

The woman told investigators that the babies were born in 2008, but as she didn't want them she placed them outside on her apartment balcony for a day and a night to kill them.

She moved the babies' bodies to the store's freezer several weeks later, investigators said.

The bodies were discovered on Tuesday by shop staff who were checking the freezer's contents. The woman no longer worked at the store.