The children, aged three to nine, were discovered by police in the village of Darry in Schleswig-Holstein after the mother said she killed them.

"We are accusing her of murder in five cases," state prosecutor Uwe Wick told reporters on Thursday, adding that the woman's mental state prevented her from being responsible for her actions. He said she should remain in psychiatric care for the long term.

The five boys were thought to have been killed sometime between Tuesday night and Wednesday midday. News reports said they had been given drugs and then suffocated with a plastic bag, though the information had not been confirmed by the authorities.

Autopsies were due to be carried out on Thursday.

The mother was being held in a psychiatric hospital. Her confused mental state prevented police from questioning her.

Youth welfare office concerned

The local youth welfare office had been concerned about the children's well-being and had tried to make contact with the family on Wednesday because two of the boys had not shown up in school, according to news reports.

Residents in Darry, a village of around 450 people, were shocked by the deaths and lessons were cancelled on Thursday in the one primary school, which two of the boys had attended.

Locals dispute reports

Parents and children in Darry rejected media reports that the boys had been neglected.

"They were obviously not wealthy, but you can't say they were neglected," a 33-year-old mother told the DPA news agency.

The children stemmed from two fathers, one of whom was said to live in Berlin, the other in Kiel, also in Schleswig-Holstein. The family had only moved to Darry three months previously, neighbors said.

The corpses of three babies were discovered in Plauen in the state of Saxony last week. Investigators believe their mother killed them shortly after they were born.

In the last hundred years, the number of children's murders had remained the same, Berlin Interior Minister Erhart Körting said.