A family of six – including four children aged between 11 months and four years – have been found dead inside a car at their home in Texas, police said.

Officers were called to a house in Stone Oak, San Antonio, to do a welfare check on Thursday morning after a neighbour flagged concerns he had not seen one of the residents for a while.

They found “heavy, noxious fumes” coming from inside the house, which were later identified to be carbon monoxide, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said.

Officers managed to get inside the property later that day and found a “cryptic” note on the door, before discovering six bodies and two animals inside an SUV parked in the garage, he told a news conference.

The bodies were identified as a husband and wife in their mid-to-late thirties and four children. (Agency report)