Bodies found at base of Swiss cliff in possible murder-suicide

Swiss police said they found the bodies of a man and his two young children at the base of a cliff on Friday, in what appeared to be a possible murder-suicide.

The body of a woman was also found a few hundred metres away in the spectactular Creux-du-Van nature reserve, but it was not immediately clear if there was a link.

Police had launched a search in the Jura mountain area using a helicopter and sniffer dogs after an unidentified man called, voicing concern about a message he had received from a relative revealing plans to kill himself and his two small children.

"The most likely scenario is that (the man) killed himself with his two children," Daniel Favre, deputy spokesman for the police in the canton of Neuchatel, told AFP.

Initial indications suggested that the woman who was also found was not the wife and mother of the deceased man and children.

"For the moment, it is really unclear if the two cases are linked, but it doesn't seem so," Favre said.

The cause of death of the four, all believed to be French nationals, has not yet been conclusively established.