Story By: Alex Cope, Sub Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency: Central European News

These two young brothers have survived after their own dad stabbed and poisoned them.

The shocking incident occurred in the city of Taubate in the southeastern Brazilian state of Sao Paulo when brothers Eduardo, 8, and Lukas, 5, were at their father Nilson de Paula’s house for a visit.

Local media report their father was struggling to accept a divorce from the boys’ mother after she reported him at least 30 times for physically abusing her.

The father is said to have poisoned the boys’ food with rat poison before attacking them with a knife.

The father then took his own life and the boy’s mother Suelen Regina Camargo, 33, said she received a call from her eldest son asking for help.

She said: “When I got there, I had to break down the gate and the front door. The first thing I saw was my sons unconscious on a mattress covered in blood.”

Their father was found dead and the boys were rushed to hospital and placed in the intensive care unit. They remained in hospital for four days but have now both been discharged with their mother saying they are doing well.

The mother said: “He (the boys’ father) didn’t accept that I had left him, that I didn’t love him anymore. He was bad to me as a husband, but he’d never done anything to our sons. I could never have imagined he was capable of this. He almost took everything I have from me.”

Investigators found rat poison in the father’s bag along with a letter in an envelope containing 1,300 BRL (192 GBP). The content of the letter was not revealed by the police.

The boy’s mother had reportedly had a restraining order placed against the boys’ father since the end of 2019.