Jersey is reeling after six people, including three children, were murdered in a frenzied knife massacre yesterday.

The deceased, who are all believed to be members of the same family, suffered horrific injuries during the attack.

The attack spilled from a flat and into the street in an area described

by a detective as "one of the safest places in the western world".

Two of the children who died are believed to have been aged only five and six. Two women and a man were also killed.

 A 30-year-old man was arrested in hospital on suspicion of murder. He underwent life-saving surgery after he had apparently tried to kill himself.

Neighbours said the victims were all members of the same Polish family who lived together in a large, rented Victorian flat in St Helier, the Channel island’s capital.

Witness Andre Thorpe told the Daily Mail he saw police shouting at a woman leaning from a window ledge as they desperately tried to get into the property.

Mr Thorpe, 50, said: ‘As I was heading past, two ambulances and four police cars all came racing towards me. They all jumped out of the cars and were trying to get into one property, with some officers trying to get around the back."