MITO, Ibaraki,Japan

A man arrested over a fire at his apartment in Ibaraki Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, has told police that he killed his wife and their five children because she had asked for a divorce, investigative sources said Saturday.

“My wife started talking of splitting up. I murdered (them) and set the room on fire after spreading gasoline,” Hirobumi Komatsu, 32, was quoted as telling the police. Komatsu was arrested after handing himself in to the police on Friday.

The fire broke out early Friday morning at the family’s apartment in a public housing building in Hitachi and was put out about an hour later.

Police believe Komatsu’s 33-year-old wife Megumi and their five children — 11-year-old daughter Mua, 7-year-old son Takara, 5-year-old son Ryua, and 3-year-old twin sons Rairu and Reiru, were fatally stabbed before the fire.