Two Norwegians were found dead in their apartment in the northern Russian city of Murmansk, the TASS news agency reported Sunday, citing unidentified law enforcement sources.
The couple — a Russian woman with Norwegian citizenship and her Norwegian husband — lived in the Norwegian border region of Finnmark and were visiting relatives in Russia, TASS reported, adding that two of the couple's six children were with them in Russia but were staying with relatives at the time of death, which had apparently occurred Thursday.
"Preliminary evidence suggests they were killed," an unidentified local police source was cited as saying by the FlashNord news agency, adding the case was being kept quiet "because the murder victims are foreign nationals."
A separate unidentified source in a different branch of law enforcement said the cause of death was suicide, the report said.
The Interior Ministry and Investigative Committee did not immediately confirm the information, FlashNord reported.
