Police said the 48-year-old used a propane gas container to torch the elderly couple as they lay in bed in the village of St Magdalena am Lemberg.

The bed-ridden woman, who had lost both her legs to diabetes, died where she lay but her husband was found in the garden having tried to escape.

Police said the suspect's wife was in the house but escaped through a window.

The suspect fled the scene but was found later having stabbed himself in the stomach, said police.

Chief investigator Anton Kiesl said the man was being kept in hospital in an induced coma. The suspect's motives were not immediately clear.

BBC