AMSTETTEN

The family of Austrian incest accused Josef Fritzl have spoken for the first time to thank the public for its support.

Fritzl confessed last month to keeping his daughter in a dungeon for 24 years and fathering seven children with her.

The daughter, Fritzl's wife and six surviving cellar children have written a poster, which has been put up in their home town of Amstetten.

They say sympathy is helping them cope and they hope to lead normal lives one day.

Most are recovering in a psychiatric clinic.

The poster contains messages inside hand outlines from Friztl's wife Rosemarie, who signs herself Grandma; her daughter Elisabeth, 42; and her children, Stefan, 18, Lisa, 16, Monika, 14, Alexander, 12, and Felix, five.

Elisabeth's eldest daughter, Kerstin, is still seriously ill in hospital. Her collapse led to the scandal being exposed.

The poster reads: "We, the whole family, would like to use this occasion to thank you all for your sympathy with our circumstances. Your compassion helps us very much to cope with this difficult time and shows us that there are also good and honourable people.

"We hope that a time will come for us in which we will find ourselves back into normal life again."

Inside the hands: Stefan: "I miss my sister. I am happy to have freedom and my family."

Alexander: "I wish for freedom, strength and sunshine."

Oma Grandma : "I want to be able to live in peace with my children with strength and the help of God."

Elisabeth: "Wishes: The recovery of my daughter, Kerstin People with hearts and understanding."

Lisa : "Wishes: Health. That everything will be good. Love."

Felix: "To walk about, to drive in a car, to play ball to walk in the meadow."

Monika: "Wishes: Kerstin becomes healthy."

In Vienna yesterday, investigators discovered the bodies of five people after a 39-year-old PR consultant went to a police station and said he had killed his family to spare them the shame of his financial ruin.

Officers found the bodies of his 42-year-old wife and seven-year-old daughter at their home in Vienna, both bludgeoned by an axe. The bodies of his parents, aged 72 and 69, and 80-year-old father-in-law were found at their homes.

The man told police he owed a six-figure sum.-AP