A horticulturist allegedly hacked three of his family members to death in their house at Sainagar colony of Balapur in Old City on the city outskirts in the early hours of Friday.

The accused S. Ram Reddy, also tried to kill his elder daughter, who saved herself by hiding in the bathroom.

"Later, Ram Reddy jumped into an agriculture well, but was rescued by locals and firemen. He maintained that his elder brother committed the triple murder," the Pahadisharieff police investigating into the case said.

The accused had disputes with his elder brother over sharing family properties and assets. "He has three acres of land having huge market value and was fairly well off but was reportedly behaving strangely following the property disputes with the sibling," the police said.

Soon after his father Balwanth Reddy went out for a walk at around 4.25 a.m., he picked up a knife and attacked his mother Subhadramma, 60, and wife Radhika, 35, who were asleep in different bedrooms.

Later, he attacked his younger daughter Akshaya, 11, with the knife and a fork.

The three died on the spot. "On seeing, the other three being murdered in front of her eyes, his elder daughter ran inside wash room and bolted the door," the police said.

He tried in vain to break it open and hurried out on seeing his father returning home from morning walk. Balwanth Reddy grew suspicious as his son was rushing out with blood splattered on clothes.

When he asked his son what had happened, the latter replied that "what was supposed to have happened had happened" and walked away. The old man entered inside only to see three of his family members murdered.