Man, 22, shoots dead five family members – including his father and three children – in France 

A man has been shot dead by armed police in France after he took several members of his family hostage and killed five of them, including his father.

The shocking incident began to unfold last night when a 22-year-old man barricaded himself in a house with his father, stepmother and three children in the small eastern town of Douvres.

Local reports said negotiators descended on the scene overnight and set up a perimeter around the town, before they ‘attempted in vain to remain in contact with the suspect throughout the night’.

At daybreak the man, armed with a firearm and a large katana began executing his family members.

Armed police officers stormed the house and killed him, but not before all five hostages, including the three children, had been executed.

French outlet Le Progres said the suspect’s identity has not been revealed, but reported that his father was the head of a building company in the Ain region, of which Douvres is a part.

The killer’s other victims included his mother-in-law, originally from Gironde, his 17 -year-old sister, his 15-year-old half-brother and his 5-year-old half-sister.

The shocking incident began to unfold last night when a 22-year-old man barricaded himself in a house with his father, stepmother and three children in the small eastern town of Douvres

A French gendarmerie car blocks the road leading to the house where the shocking murders occurred