SYDNEY: Seven people have been found dead in a rural town in Australia’s Margaret River wine-growing region, police said on Friday.

The bodies of four children and three adults were found at or near a property in Osmington near the southwestern tip of Australia, Western Australia’s Commissioner of Police Chris Dawson told a news conference.

Dawson said firearms were found at the scene. He said there appeared to be gunshot wounds.

“I can only describe it as a horrific situation,” Dawson said, told AFP.

Gun crime in Australia fell sharply after strict controls were introduced in response to a mass shooting in 1996, when a lone gunman killed 35 people in Tasmania.

That prompted the government to buy back or confiscate a million firearms and make it harder to buy new ones.