A mother who lived with the mummified remains of her children while she still claimed state benefits for them has been seized by the police in Russia.

Horrified officers found the gruesome skeletal remains of a baby still wearing its nappy at the filthy family flat in the town of Velikiye Luki, in north-western Russia’s Pskov Oblast, on 23rd November.

Another mummified four-year-old boy’s body was found in the apartment still wearing his clothes at the spot where he died.

A third child’s body, an eight-year-old girl, was found at a country dacha bought by the children’s mother with their welfare benefits, according to local media.

Police video footage of a search of the apartment shows the mother, named only as 34-year-old Daria, telling officers where she left the bodies.

As a police crime reconstruction team watches on grim-faced, she places a dummy where she left one of her children’s bodies to rot.

The grim discovery was made when another of Daria’s children, her eldest child, a 12-year-old boy who was living with his gran, went to her apartment and saw one of the bodies.

The boy told his gran, Daria’s unnamed mother, who in turn called the police.

She told officers: “There is a dead child in my daughter’s apartment. He is in bed, but the bones are already visible.”

Mother-of-five Daria’s only other surviving child, a five-year-old girl, lived in the apartment surrounded by her siblings’ bodies.

Local media said little is known about the baby that died as it was not registered when it was born but it was believed to have been just months old.

Neighbours said they often heard the children scream and said that Daria treated them cruelly, according to reports.

Local media said that Daria led a wild lifestyle of parties funded by child benefits and that her children had different fathers.

A sixth child, Daria’s firstborn, is said to have died years ago under strange circumstances, which have yet to be clarified.

Investigators are determining whether Daria is mentally competent to stand trial.

The investigation is ongoing. The Russian police are investigating Daria for murder.

If found to be mentally competent, Daria could be jailed for 20 years if convicted.