Three young children were taken to the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario for an assessment after they were discovered Monday abandoned in their Vanier home.

Police were alerted to the home after a neighbour reported hearing the children's cries through the wall.

A neighbour, who cannot be identified to protect the identities of the children, told CBC News he saw one of the young girls through a narrow windowpane beside the door. He started banging on the door and throwing snowballs at an upstairs window in the event a parent was asleep or passed out inside.

The front door of the house was locked, so police had to climb through a balcony door to reach the children, who are age three, two and nine months old.

The neighbour's wife said when police opened the door the nine-month-old child was on the second level climbing near the stairs, and the oldest girl was wearing only a T-shirt and had feces running down her leg.

The children were assessed at CHEO, where no signs of physical abuse were found.