The bodies of two babies have been found in a box at a house in Greater Manchester, police said today.

The skeletal remains were found at the home of a recently deceased elderly woman by a relative who was clearing out the house.

A box was found contained two further boxes. Each held one set of human remains. A paediatric expert will carry out tests to find out how old the children were when they died.

A postmortem will be held today to find out how the children died, and the relative will be DNA-tested to discover if there was a familial link between them and the elderly woman. No names have been released by police.

Investigators are examining the possibility that the occupant of the house on Rowcon Close, a 1960s council maisonette in Audenshaw, Greater Manchester, was the mother of the children and kept the deaths a secret for decades.

A spokeswoman for Greater Manchester police said: "The bones are believed to be from two babies and had been at the address for some time. "A postmortem will be conducted to try and establish a cause of death. Inquiries are continuing."