Police on the Costa del Sol have launched an investigation after a married couple and their daughter were crushed to death by hundreds of kilos of clothes they had hoarded in their home, the Daily Mail reports.

The bodies of the man and wife, aged 49 and 50, together with their 12-year-old daughter, were found by their other child, a girl of 18, in Alicante.

It is believed they were either crushed or suffocated by the mountain of clothes they had apparently collected in their house over a number of years.
Investigators say part of the floor of the first-floor apartment of the flat caved in due to the weight and the three victims were buried under the clothes.

The freak accident happened between 8am and 9am on Sunday in Avenida Alcoi but it was not discovered until 1pm by the surviving 18-year-old daughter.

The married couple suffered 'a kind of Diogenes Syndrome, which led them to compulsively accumulate all kinds of clothing,' according to sources.

Spanish newspapers say the older girl was in an adjoining room and was still asleep because she had been surfing the internet until the early hours of the morning. When she woke up, she saw that the floor had collapsed to the ground floor below.

When she lifted the clothes, she saw her sister's arm and called the police.

Rescuers had to remove a massive amount of clothes and other items to free the bodies.