A woman has died after falling from a tenth-floor Madrid tower block with her three-year-old twins in her arms, just a day after they celebrated their birthdays. The 48-year-old was killed instantly, while her children were rushed to hospital alive but “critically injured”.

The horror incident happened just after 9am on Saturday morning (December 6) at an apartment block in the Madrid neighbourhood of Ciudad Lineal. The children’s mother, a Spaniard identified so far only by her first name, Maria, had bought presents for the youngsters hours earlier in a nearby shop. One of the twins has been admitted to Madrid’s 12 de Octubre University Hospital, while the other is in the children’s hospital of Hospital Infantil Niño Jesús.

Medics are said to have grave concerns that the most seriously injured of the two children may not survive.

Their mother lived alone after splitting from her husband. Locals said she suffered depression and was taking medication. Other reports said she believed she was being spied on and followed.

The apartment block from which the woman plunged is located on Calle Ricardo Ortiz in Ciudad Lineal, a quiet residential neighbourhood approximately 30 minutes from Madrid’s city centre.

A spokesman for the city ambulance service said: “We can confirm the death of a woman who plunged from the tenth floor of a block of flats in Ricardo Ortiz.

“Two children aged three have been taken to different hospitals.

“National police are conducting an ongoing investigation. Local police and firefighters were also mobilised.”