Pakistan teenager 'kills eight family members'

(AFP)

LAHORE, Pakistan — A teenager in central Pakistan shot dead his parents and six siblings Sunday because his father could not feed the family, police said.

Mohammad Afzal, 19, is believed to have drugged his parents, two sisters, and four brothers, before tying them up and killing them, senior police officer Syed Mehmood Gilani told AFP by telephone.

The dead siblings were aged between three and 16 years, Gilani added, saying that the victims "all died on the spot".

The incident took place in Gujranwala district of Pakistan, some 80 kilometre's north of Pakistan's eastern city Lahore, the capital of central Punjab province.

Police suspect that the victims were given sleeping drugs before being shot but are waiting for the autopsy report for confirmation.

Afzal, who was the eldest of the children, initially told police that bandits had killed his family during a burglary but was arrested by officers after finding no signs of forced entry.

Afzal then confessed to the murders, saying he decided to kill all of them because he could not break the cycle of poverty that had engulfed the family, police said.

"His father was a poor donkey cart owner and he told us that the father had been unable to feed the family twice a day," police said.