The detainee had a history of psychological problems and had already attacked his wife with a knife in 2019.
ADVERTISEMENTFrench police reported to have arrested the father of the family suspected of murdering his wife and their four children on Christmas Day.
Authorities discovered the bodies of the 35-year-old woman and her children aged nine months, four, seven and ten in their flat in the town of Meaux east of Paris.
The bodies were discovered on Monday night after worried neighbours contacted the police when they couldn't reach the family.
The apartment where the family lived "showed no signs of forced entry and the father of the family was absent", the Meaux prosecutor's office said in a statement released in the early hours of the morning.
The 33-year-old man was arrested this morning at his father's home in Sevran Saint Denis, some 30 kilometres away, the prosecutor's office added.
The detainee had a history of psychological problems and had already attacked his wife with a knife in 2019, although the case was dismissed on the grounds of mental deficiency.
The French capital is left in a state of mourning as there have recently been two triple murders of children by their parents, both on the outskirts of Paris.
At the end of November, a 41-year-old man went to a police station to confess to the murder of his three daughters, aged between 4 and 11, in Alfortville, in the Paris region. He said it was a dispute with his ex-wife over custody of the children.
A month earlier, in October, a gendarme killed his three daughters before committing suicide at his home in Vémars. According to the prosecutor, these events also took place "in a complicated family context".
France witnesses a femicide every three days on average. Last year alone, 118 women lost their lives at the hands of their spouses or former partners.