A Tajik national and his two children were found dead in a rented apartment in eastern Moscow early on Thursday, a police official said.

The police source said the man, whose name has not been disclosed, is believed to have stabbed his children to death and then committed suicide. Earlier reports said the man and his five-year-old daughter and eight-year-old son died of multiple stab wounds to the throat.

"The latest reports said the apartment was locked from inside. There was nobody else in the apartment. The man's wounds [slashed wrists] indicate he committed suicide," the official said, dismissing suggestions of a racially motivated attack.

Investigators said the man could have killed the children in revenge for his wife.

Last month, a Navy officer was charged with throwing two eight-year-old stepdaughters out of an eighth-floor window in Moscow while drunk. The girls survived the fall. He has denied the charges.

MOSCOW, December 3 (RIA Novosti)