Officials remove the body of one of five children found dead in their home on Saturday afternoon at a mobile home south of Seattle. Police believe the children's father killed them before committing suicide. (Ted S. Warren/AP Photo)

A man and his five children are dead in what police believe was a murder-suicide at a mobile home in Washington state.

Police suspect the father, 35, shot and killed his children, ages seven to 16, before taking his own life Saturday.

The bodies of four girls and a boy, who was the youngest of the siblings, were found inside their home at the Deer Run mobile park in Pierce County, 70 kilometres south of Seattle.

The body of the father was found in his still-running car, 30 kilometres from his home.

He had apparently killed himself with a rifle, Auburn police Sgt. Scott Near said. No note was left in the car.

The mother's aunt, Penny Flansburg, identified the couple as Angela and James Harrison, and the children as Maxine, Samantha, Heather, Jamie and James.

The father worked as a diesel mechanic, and the mother works at Wal-Mart, Flansburg said.

A classmate of the eldest daughter said the girl told him Friday night that her parents had fought and her father had followed her mother, trying to persuade her to return after she left the home.

With files from the Associated Press