A father killed his three children – one as young as two months old – with an ax and dumped their bodies in a well. Police are looking for the man, who hails from a village in India's eastern state of Odisha.

The accused, identified as Pandu Munda, was a daily wage laborer. He returned home from work in an inebriated state Saturday night and had a fight with his wife, Dubuli Munda, over some petty issue. At some point, Pandu tried to attack his wife with an ax but she managed to flee from the spot and hid in the bushes behind the house, Times Now reported.

As he couldn't find his wife, Pandu vented his anger on his three children – 5-year-old daughter Seema, 2-year-old son Raju and a 2-month-old daughter who was not yet named. He then threw the bodies inside a nearby well and fled the scene, the Hindusthan Times reported.

Dubuli returned to her home the next morning but she couldn't find the children inside. She spotted a blanket lying near the well while searching for her children inside the house. When she peered inside the well, Dubuli saw her elder daughter's body floating on the surface of the water. The woman immediately walked to the nearby police station and filed a complaint.

"My husband came and assaulted me. After he pulled an ax to attack me, I ran out of the house to save my life. I don't know how he killed my children," Dubuli told local channel Odisha TV.

Police retrieved the bodies from the well and sent them for an autopsy Sunday morning. Pandu remains on the run and police are trying to nab him.

"As the well is deep, it took around 40 minutes to recover the bodies," an official told Odisha TV.

In August last year, a man in the northern Indian state of Haryana hacked his daughter-in-law and his tenant to death as he suspected the duo was having an affair. The accused, identified as Rao Rai Singh, also killed the tenant's wife and their 9-year-old child in a fit of rage.

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Man hacked his three children to death with ax Pixabay