London, Jan 11: An Indian-origin man and his English wife have been murdered in Birmingham, the British police said today, weeks after an Indian student was killed in an apparent hate crime in Manchester.
The West Midlands Police named the victim as Avatar Singh Kolar, 62, and Carole Kolar, 58. The police added that their son is a police officer.
The incident comes closely after 23-year-old Indian student Anuj Bidve was shot dead in Greater Manchester, in a case that make headlines in both India and Britain.
Yesterday, the police also confirmed the death of another 20-year-old Indian-origin student Gurdeep Hayer being found dead in Manchester city centre, eight days after he went missing.
In the killing of the couple, no suspects have been identified so far as the police launched an appeal for information in the murder case. The bodies of the two victims were discovered in their house in Handsworth Wood, just after 8 am today, but no further details about the victims were released.
The police believed the couple were subjected to an assault. Both were pronounced dead at the scene and a major investigation was immediately launched.
The couple had four grown up children, two sons and two daughters, including the police officer who has not been named.
Detective Superintendent Richard Baker from Force CID: "Our thoughts are with the family of this couple, and the community in which they lived.
We are going to do everything that we can to find those responsible as quickly as possible".
He added: "We have 60 officers working on this enquiry and neighbourhood officers are currently out in the local area delivering reassurance messages.
This is a major investigation with a number of extremely fast enquiries currently being undertaken".
Detectives from the Force CID, forensic specialists and local neighbourhood officers are at the scene today carrying out significant house to house, CCTV and forensic enquiries.
The couple's family have been informed and family liaison officers are in place, the police said.
