Amsterdam police have found four bodies at a flat in a quiet street in Amsterdam’s Zuid district in what they say appears to be a murder suicide. All were members of the same family.

Police were called to the building on the Herculesstraat in the early hours of Monday morning, following reports of a shooting incident.

They found four bodies in the apartment – two women, a man and a five-year-old girl. Investigators are now trying to assess what happened, but it seems as if the man may have killed the women and child and then taken his own life, police said.

A large part of the street has been closed off while the investigation continues.

A neighbour, who was walking his dog at round 1am, told the Parool he had heard two shots and had called the police.

The family had ‘psychiatric problems’ and were known to social services, the man told the paper.