Three children – a 13-year-old girl and two boys, aged 2 and 11 – were found dead today in a house in the Haute-Savoie commune of Tanenz, in the French Alps, a few tens of kilometers from the Swiss border.

A major police operation is underway to locate the children’s mother, who is said to have been suffering from depression.

About 60 gendarmes have been mobilized, while a helicopter is involved in the operation, a source from the local gendarmerie told AFP.

The dead children were discovered at noon by the father of the youngest child, who notified the authorities.

Tanez is a community of 3,5000 inhabitants in the Gifre valley, about 50 kilometers east of Geneva.

Bonneville’s district attorney, who is responsible for the area, said it has been determined that “the victims have stab wounds.”

Last week, two children – aged one and four – were found decapitated in their home in the commune of Saint-Rose in Guadeloupe, a French overseas territory in the Caribbean.

Their mother, who was spotted wandering the streets, was arrested and is being held in a psychiatric hospital.