A man killed his 11-year-old son by slitting his throat in Pokhara on early Wednesday morning.

Police said 40-year-old Ramji Ghale, a Makwanpur native, was apparently planning to massacre his entire family before taking his own life. But the neighbours intervened before he could carry on the murder spree.

The neighbours were shocked when they found Ghale with self-inflicted knife wound, his heavily pregnant wife critically injured and their son Gyapan laying dead with his throat slit open.

Sumitra’s mother was also in the house at the time of the incident. She had awakened the neighbours. Both Ghale and his wife Sumitra were rushed to hospital.

Sumitra was immediately wheeled in to the operating room of the Western Regional Hospital as she was carrying a child who was shortly due. But her trauma had taken its toll on her unborn baby. The baby was stillbirth.

Meanwhile, Ghale is undergoing treatment at the Manipal Teaching Hospital.

Kaski district police chief Om Bahadur Rana said Ghale and his family had been living in Rambazaar, Kalikamarga. He worked as a house painter to support his family. The neighbours said they had never heard the couple fight.