FOUR bodies have been found in a house in a Hampshire town.

Two adults and two children, girls aged two and one, were discovered dead at about 11.20am today at a property in Provost Street, Fordingbridge.

Emergency services were called after a member of the public heard screaming.

Paramedics found the woman and children dead with stab wounds and a man hanging from stairway.

The ambulance service has despatched welfare staff to counsel the paramedics who found the bodies.

Detectives from Hampshire's major crime department are now leading the investigation.

A cordon has been put up around the property.

Eye witnesses at the scene told how the police cordon had been placed across two houses, to block off entrance down a small road that leads to more houses.

The properties are fairly newly built homes and were being guarded by a policeman.

The road is fairly central in the town and connects with the High Street. The nearest businesses are just a couple of hundred yards away.

Five police cars and two vans were at the scene, with several detectives within the cordon. Officers could be seen getting into white forensic suits as they prepared to go inside the house.

A member of staff from Kebab House, a nearby takeaway business, said: “When I arrived there were police everywhere, initially three or four cars but maybe more. People are just walking up and down trying to find out what has happened.”

Staff at the nearby Crown Inn said regulars in the pub were talking about what was happening but nobody really new for sure what had taken place.

A neighbour Alayna Brooks, aged 53, said she saw the grandmother of the family running out of the house screaming: 'they're all dead'.

Miss Brooks said she understood the husband of the family, who is believed to have been a delivery driver at Doccombe European Ltd, was found hanged in a bedroom, the two girls were on a bed and the mother was found dead downstairs.

Another neighbour Jeremy Pentecost also saw the grandmother running out of the house. He said: "The door was wide open, she was in floods of tears, saying 'I can't believe it.' I think she was on her mobile phone to her husband. The children's dad was a really nice guy. I used to see him cleaning his car and we had a joke together."