Police found the bodies of five infants in a home near Bordeaux, France, on Thursday, according to news reports. Four of the bodies were frozen, the reports say.
The mother, 35, was hospitalized at Pellegrin Hospital in Bordeaux for gynecological and psychiatric examinations, the French television channel BFMTV reported.
Contacted by CNN, the hospital declined comment.
The first body was found Thursday morning by the woman’s companion, a 40-year-old man, in a freezer bag, BFMTV reported. Police discovered bodies of four other babies in a freezer Thursday evening during a search of the family’s home, the channel said.
Officials with the Bordeaux prosecutor’s office were scheduled to hold a press conference Friday afternoon. Autopsies on the bodies will reportedly be conducted Friday as well, BFMTV said.
The woman’s companion was taken into custody, the reports said. He told investigators that he had not known of the deaths and was devastated, according to reports.
The couple is reported to have two daughters, aged 13 and 15, and to have led a seemingly routine life.
The family home is in Louchats, a village of fewer than 1,000 residents about 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of Bordeaux, in the Landes forest, in southwestern France.
The country’s worst case of infanticide was in 2010 when a mother in the village of Villers-au-Tertre in northwestern France was found to have killed eight of her babies.
