A woman allegedly tried to kill herself after killing her three-year-old twin daughters at Bhuterdia village in Babuganj upazila under the district yesterday.

The deceased are Mariam Akter and Ayesha Siddika, daughters of Sharmin Begum, 26, and Selim Khan, 31, a day labourer.

Neighbours rescued Sharmin, floating in the Sugandha River, after foiling her alleged suicide bid, police quoted locals as saying. She had been suffering from mental depression, they said.

Later, according to Sharmin's statement neighbours found the bodies of her twin daughters from an adjacent bamboo cluster, said Shah Alam, officer-in-charge of Babuganj Police Station.

Informed by the locals, police went to the spot, recovered the bodies and sent them to Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital morgue for autopsy.

They also admitted the mother to Babuganj Upazila Health Complex under their custody, the OC added.