Syrian refugee and daughters found dead in Danish freezer

Bodies of woman and children aged seven and nine found in freezer in family home

Police are searching for the woman's husband (AP)

The bodies of a 27-year-old Syrian woman and her two young children have been found in a freezer in southern Denmark.

Officers are searching for the woman's husband who is also father to the children, aged seven and nine.

Police said they were contacted by a member of the woman's family who had not been able to reach her for several days.

The woman and the two girls were last seen on Wednesday or Thursday and on Sunday evening their bodies were found in a freezer inside their flat in the Danish town of Aabenraa. It is not yet known when or how they died.

South Jutland police have said in a statement the incident was a "family tragedy" and the father was a suspect. He is not thought to have been living with the family.

On Monday police were investigating the family home and speaking to people who knew them.

The family had arrived in Denmark in summer of 2015 and gained refugee status. That year 21,000 people sought asylum in Denmark – a significant rise from the 14,815 applications in 2014.

Yet Denmark has a track record of being less welcoming than other Nordic countries, most notably because of the controversial jewellery law it adopted to seize the valuables of arriving refgees,