A 42-year-old mother is accused of stabbing her three children in Valley Heights, in Sydney’s Blue Mountains, killing her five-year-old son and critically injuring his two younger siblings. Witnesses described finding her screaming and thrashing in nearby bushes while the children sat silent inside a car, prompting urgent efforts to rescue them.

Police are treating the boy’s death as a domestic violence incident and identify the mother as the sole suspect. Her injuries are believed to be self-inflicted, but she remains critically ill and has not yet been interviewed; police say the family had no known links to the area, while the children’s father was at work.