THREE people were found dead in their apartment in Meilingju, a housing estate in the Shangmeilin area of Futian District, early Tuesday, according to a report in the Southern Metroplis Daily.

A relative of the victims visited the apartment on the seventh floor at 9 a.m. and saw the bodies lying in pools of blood. He immediately called the police.

Doctors who carried out autopsies said they had been dead for at least 24 hours.

The three, a couple in their 60s and a woman in her 40s, who was said to be the couple's daughter-in-law, were found with their hands bound, according to yesterday's Daily Sunshine.

The male victim surnamed Huang, 68, found in the bedroom, had been attacked with a butcher's knife suffering head wounds, while his wife, 62, found in the living room, also died from head wounds. The other woman had been suffocated by the attackers after she tried to shout for help, police said.

People living in the housing estate said the three had lived in the apartment for some time. Their son, who is working outside the Special Economic Zone, had bought the house for his parents. However, the family was not well-known to many of their neighbors as the couple were not very sociable.

Police refused to reveal any further details about the incident. But the Daily Sunshine report quoted an unidentified source as saying that the couple were killed in revenge. "The killer is too brutal to be just a robber. Two mobile phones were also found on the table in the living room which a robber would have taken when he escaped," said the source who declined to be named. The source also lives in the same building, and claimed to have witnessed the scene.

An investigation is still underway.

(Han Ximin)