Thousands honour eight slain children at funeral in northern Australia

Thousands of people yesterday flocked to the funeral of eight children found dead at their home in the northern Australian city of Cairns, in a crime that shocked the country.

Raina Mersane Ina Thaiday, 37, the mother of seven of the children and aunt to the other, was charged with murder after their bodies were found, reportedly with stab wounds, at her house just before Christmas.

The children - four boys and four girls aged between two and 14 from the tight-knit Torres Strait Islander community - were laid to rest side by side after a traditional mourning period.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott attended the Christian service, saying earlier that he would be going in "solidarity with the people of Cairns and with all victims of family violence".

Hundreds of people lined an intersection near the house where the children died as eight hearses, each carrying a white coffin, drove past with a police escort.

The funeral was called Keriba Omasker, meaning "our children" in the Torres Strait Islander dialect that was the ancestral language of the children.