The "soft-spoken" 42-year- old Indian software engineer killed five of his family members before shooting himself using two recently purchased pistols, police said today, indicating that the crime was likely related to "family dynamics and personal relationships."

The lone survivor of the "unimaginable violence", the wife of the engineer who escaped with multiple gunshot wounds, was in a critical condition at a hospital, police said and ruled out financial woes as the motive behind the slaying.