The 3-year-old son of a Hong Kong police officer was hospitalized Monday in serious condition after the boy's mother tried to suffocate him with a pillow before hanging herself, the dpa reported.
The 31-year-old woman was found hanging by a belt from a clothes - drying rack by her husband in their married police quarters at the end of his night shift on Sunday morning, a police spokesman said.
The boy was unconscious on his bed after having apparently been smothered by his mother, the spokesman said.
The mother was declared dead at the scene in Hong Kong's Yau Tong district. A suicide note was found indicating that she intended to kill herself and her son over relationship difficulties.
Murder-suicide cases in Hong Kong have risen sharply in recent years, with sociologists blaming a lack of communication between couples in the wealthy city of 6.9 million people and a lack of welfare support for families facing domestic difficulties.