Mom allegedly kills daughters with hatchet

ASHEVILLE, N.C., Aug. 28 (UPI) -- An Asheville, N.C., mother is charged with allegedly killing her two daughters with a hatchet, police say.

Naiyana Patel, 33, is accused of taking a hatchet to her 4- and 8-year-old daughters Saturday, the Asheville Citizen-Times reported.

Patel then allegedly struck her own head several times with the hatchet in a failed suicide attempt, the newspaper said. She was in a hospital recovering after surgery, police say.

Lalji Patel, the children's father, reported the attack at 10 a.m. When police arrived, the two girls were found dead.

Neighbor Linda Hillary said she saw the man leave the house Saturday morning.

"While he was gone we heard screaming" coming from the house, she said.

Hillary said when the father returned, he went in, then came back out in a frantic state.

"He was calling 911," she said. "He said he needed medical help. He said his wife murdered his daughters. He was in agony."

Other neighbors say they didn't know the family very well, as they had just moved in two months ago.

The parents moved to the United States from India and have lived in Asheville since 1990.