Mother, daughter die of starvation in France

PARIS, July 4 (Reuters) A mother and her 5-year-old daughter starved to death in the suburbs of Paris and their bodies lay undiscovered in an apartment for up to four months, police said today.

The mother was named as Doomitra, 32, from Mauritius, and the child was called Chana.

''The post-mortem showed that it was a natural death and not a murder or intoxication. They died three or four months ago,'' a police official said, adding that the mother must have prevented her daughter from eating.

The bodies were discovered in Paris's Aubervilliers suburb last week and a local official said he could not understand why it had taken so long to realise something had gone wrong.

''What we have to find out is why no-one was worried about this little girl given that she hadn't attended school for months,'' Jean-Claude Romeo, head of child and family welfare at the local council.

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