Residents watch as police attend a house in Murray St, Manoora, in Cairns where eight children died. Pic: Stewart McLean Source: News Corp Australia

It was a suburban house where kids were safe to kick a footy in the street or the nearby park.

But yesterday neighbours instead gathered on the footpath sobbing for the eight children lost.

PLEA: Cries for forgiveness before atrocity

SCENE: The street behind the horrors

Torres Strait Islander singing at a vigil across the road from a Cairns home where eight children were found dead.

TRAGEDY: Neighours heard screaming

The triple-0 call came through late in the morning yesterday.

A 20-year-old man, believed to be an older brother of the murdered children, had discovered the heartbreaking scene after arriving for a visit.

He found his mother with stab wounds to her chest.

Flowers and toys lie against a fence across the road from the scene where eight children died. Pic: Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images

A fleet of ambulances arrived soon after but only one of them was needed.

As the distraught brother paced up and down the yard, forensic police arrived to begin their investigation.

They confronted a scene more horrific than they had ever seen in their careers.

Outside, a crowd gathered, relatives of the family and strangers all shocked by the tragedy comforted each other.

A candlelight vigil is held in the street where eight children died. Pic: Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images

One woman dropped to her knees wailing after being told of the tragedy.

The area is known as a tough neighbourhood suffering relatively high crime rates but even so nothing could prepare residents for the news.

Local pastor Nicole Dalla Vecchia, 30, joined those at the scene to offer support.

“I felt sick when I saw the picture,” she said.

Neighbours comfort each other in Murray St upon hearing the news. Pic: Brendan Radke

“It doesn’t matter if you know them or not, it breaks your heart.”

Last night, bouquets of flowers lay in the street.

One card read: “Eight innocent lives lost. We support you Murray Street.’’

Cristal Aitkinson left flowers at a children’s playground near the crime scene as they battled to come to terms with what had gone on.

A mourner lays a bunch of flowers across the road from the scene where eight children died. Pic: Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images

Holding back tears, the 17-year-old said she knew one of the victims and had come to pay her respects.

“It’s just a great big shock to this area, especially with the (Sydney) siege,” she said.

Her teenage sister Jade said they were a “close, tight-knit, loving family”.

“We’re all very tight and this is a very big shock.”

The local Cook Islander community hold their own vigil last night, singing the Lord's Prayer in their native Penrhyn language. Pic: Brendan Radke.

Larry Birch shares his back fence with the victims’ house and did not know anything was wrong until he heard helicopters hovering overhead.

He had only spoken once with the mother and referred to it as a happy encounter.

“I gave them a big pile of vegies one day and she couldn’t stop thanking me, I think she was really nice,” Mr Birch said.

Ngatu Temu, 20, knew the family well and said the neighbourhood was going to be a different place now,

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has lamented the nation’s ‘trying times’ in a week of tragedy. Pic: Gary Ramage

“Everyone is pretty much heartbroken today.”

Ms Temu said she went to school with the 20-year-old sibling of the dead children who arrived home to find the bloodshed.

“I know them pretty well,” she said. “They have always lived in this neighbourhood. Everbody knows them.

“Most of us finished work early today to be here to comfort one another.

A distressed woman is accompanied by police they attend a house in Murray St, Manoora, in Cairns where eight children died. Pic: Stewart McLean

“Everyone is struggling. It’s just tragic.”

THE horror of one of Australia’s worst massacres has sent shockwaves across the nation and around the world.

Political leaders were ­united with fellow Australians in disbelief and grief at the senseless loss of young lives, and the crime dominated headlines in media from the US to the UK and India.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott described the “unspeakable crime” as “heartbreaking”.

“All parents would feel a gut-wrenching sadness at what has happened,” Mr Abbott, a father-of three, said.

“These are trying days for our country.”

Mr Abbott said there would be tears and prayers for the loss of the children’s lives and he acknowledged the difficult situation emergency services would have faced on discovering the gruesome scene.

“My thoughts are with the Queensland Police and all who have to respond to this terrible situation,” he said.

Premier Campbell Newman said he was “deeply saddened and shocked” by the tragedy.

“My thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of those concerned,” he said.

Mr Newman said the police and emergency services who responded to the scene would be given the support they required in the aftermath of the horrific event.

“Indeed, the whole Cairns community and the people of Queensland will feel the effects of this tragedy, particularly at a time of year when families come together,” he said.

“I ask that all Queenslanders reach out to those who may need support in coming days and do not hesitate to seek professional assistance if needed.”

Cairns Mayor Bob Manning said the region was in shock.

“I ask the people of Cairns to unite and display sympathy for those directly affected by this incident and respect for the police and other authorities who now must go about this difficult work,” he said.

Local state MP Gavin King said: “The scale of the tragedy is incredibly shocking.”

In a joint statement federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and Opposition mental health spokeswoman Jan McLucas, said: “How something like this could occur is beyond anyone’s comprehension.

“There is no greater evil than the killing of children.

“This is a time for all of us to tell the people we care for, how much we love them.’’

Bond University criminologist Dr Terry Goldsworthy said the scale of the slayings was unprecedented. “This would certainly be the worst in terms of the number of children (of one family).’’

In September 1971, Clifford Cecil Bartholomew shot and killed his wife, sister-in-law, seven children and a nephew in a farmhouse at Hope Forest, south of Adelaide.

In July 1999, Barbara Ann Wyrzykowski gassed herself and her five children – Mark, 8, twins Sarah and Luke, 5, Jess, 4, and Jade, 1 – to death in a car on a remote track outside Perth.

Just three weeks later, Mark Heath, 31, killed himself and his four children, Sarah, 8, Holly, 6, Jak, 4, and Kaleb, 2, in similar circumstances south of Perth.

Farmer Geoff Hunt shot his wife Kim and their three children – Fletcher, 10, Mia, 8, and Phoebe, 6 – before turning the gun on himself at the family homestead at Lockhart in NSW in September.

Sydney couple Norman and Lily Lin and their sons Henry and Terry were found bashed to death along with Mrs Lin’s sister Irene, at their North Epping home in July 2009. Mr Lin’s brother-in-law Lian Bin “Robert” Xie will face trial in February.

Antique restorer Peter Shoobridge was dubbed “The Tasmanian Devil’’ after slitting the throats of his four daughters, aged 9-18, before cutting off his own hand with an axe and fatally shooting himself in 1997.

Max Sica was sentenced to 35 years jail for the triple murder of his ex-girlfriend Neelma Singh, 24, and her siblings Kunal, 18, and Sidhi, 12, in Brisbane in 2003.

In July 1970, the bodies of pregnant Therese Crawford and her three children were found inside a crashed car on a rocky ledge near the bottom of a cliff in Victoria. Her husband Elmer vanished.