The 32-year-old named only as Orhan S., has admitted killing and beheading his wife Semanur, 30, on Sunday night, in a case that left Germany horrified. He threw her head and other body parts into the courtyard as police approached him on the roof of their apartment building.

“There is reason to believe that he was psychologically unbalanced. It is likely he will now be held in a closed psychiatric institute,” a detective told the Berliner Zeitung newspaper after a psychiatrist examined the man.

One relative told the BZ newspaper that Orhan had suffered psychiatric problems, speaking of depression with schizophrenic episodes.

Toxicological examinations will also be conducted to determine what drugs and medicines he may – or may not – have had in his blood stream. Neighbours have told reporters that he regularly took medication for mental disorders as well as illegal drugs.

The couple’s six children, aged between one and 13 were not physically harmed in the attack – before which their mother locked them in a room to keep them out of the way according to some reports.

They have been placed together in state care while authorities try to figure out if anyone else in the family can look after them, the paper said.

A group from the area called “Neukölln Awake!” was planning a demonstration in the street for Tuesday evening to show their solidarity as “Turkish men against violence and barbarism” – the group of largely men with Turkish roots campaigns against domestic violence.

DPA/The Local/hc