knife
[Representational Image]Creative Commons/Blooded (2011)

An 86-year-old man and his 80-year-old wife were found murdered, apparently by robbers, at their south Delhi home, police said on Friday.

Manohar Lal Madan, a retired Punjab National Bank employee, and his wife Vimla Madan were found dead at their East of Kailash residence here.

"The couple might have been killed late on Thursday night. Prima facie, it seems the miscreants strangled them," a police official said.

The killers may have been robbers as the house had been ransacked.

Police said the couple were in the national capital to spend Diwali with their eldest son, who was at the first floor of the house when the incident occurred.

The couple's son came down after hearing a commotion and found them dead.

"It seems to be a clear case of robbery as the wardrobe has been ransacked and damaged," Joint Commissioner of Police R.S. Krishnaiya told IANS.

"It was a forced entry into the house. The couple was sleeping on the ground floor of the house. They might have been killed while resisting the robbery bid," the official said.

The family members asserted that it was a case of robbery.

"It has not been clear until now how much money or valuables have been stolen by the intruders," another police official said.