Four people were dead and a teenager was in serious condition after five members of a French family jumped off a seventh-floor balcony in Montreux, a town in Switzerland, on Thursday. 

Police confirmed that a 40-year-old man, his 41-year-old wife, her twin sister, along with the couple’s 8-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son had plunged from the balcony of their apartment after cops showed up at their door.

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All of them, except the teen, died immediately after hitting the ground. The boy was rushed to a local hospital and remained in critical condition as of Thursday night. 

“The officers were unable to enter the apartment, and it appears that at that moment, the decision was made by this family to throw themselves off the balcony,” Jean Christophe Sauterel, spokesman for the Vaud cantonal police, told public broadcaster RTS.

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Investigation revealed that cops had arrived at the apartment early Thursday to execute a warrant for the man in connection with the home-schooling of the teen. When nobody opened the door, the officers left, but “in the meantime, a witness called the police to say that people had fallen from an apartment balcony,” police said in a statement. 

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The family members have not been identified and the circumstances leading to the incident were also not known. 

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Meanwhile, neighbours recalled finding bodies near the building. 

“I saw five bodies around 10 metres from the building, three on one side and two on the other. It was difficult to understand what I was seeing. It was like a bad movie,” one neighbour told the Tribune de Geneve daily.