Three new-born babies have been found dead in the basement of a block of flats in the Austrian city of Graz.

Two were in a communal freezer and the other was in a bucket that had been cemented over, police said.

A woman aged 32 - believed to be their mother - and her 38-year-old partner are being questioned by police.

The Graz newspaper Kleine Zeitung said a man discovered the first dead baby in a plastic bag when he went to fetch an ice cream for his daughter on Monday.

Police are still searching the apartment block in Graz, about 200 km (120 miles) south of Vienna.

PHOTO CAPTION

Police search a hut near the house in Graz, Austria, on Friday, June 3, 2005. (AP)