A two-year-old girl discovered alongside the dead bodies of her parents may have been living alone in their apartment for up to nine days, authorities in Ukraine say.
Police are thought to have found the toddler at a flat in the Dniprovsky district of Kiev on Saturday, after her grandmother reported she had not heard from the family for several days.
Officers attended the apartment and, noticing a smell emanating from the home, decided to break down the door.
Inside, they found the bodies of a married couple, a 34-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman, alongside their “exhausted” two-year-old daughter.
The girl was later taken to hospital, and authorities say her life is no longer in danger.
“Criminal investigation officers experienced a specific smell during the inspection of the area around the apartment,” said Yuliya Medvid, chief of police in Dniprovsky.
“After that, the investigators decided on the authorised opening of the door of the premises. As a result, law enforcement officers found the dead husband and wife in the house.”
Neighbours claimed the family was "dysfunctional," telling Ukrainian news website Informator the husband and wife were regular drug users.
They said a loud argument had been heard inside the apartment on 2 May, after which the family had not been seen or heard from again.
In a statement, Kiev police said the bodies of the man and woman found at the property had no visible injuries and a post mortem examination would establish the cause of their death.
It added detectives were currently treating their enquiries as a murder investigation.
