Thane, Feb. 28 (PTI): A 35-year-old tax professional killed 14 members of his own family, including his parents and a three-month-old daughter, in one of the grisliest massacres in the country in recent years before committing suicide early today, police said.

One woman - the man's sister - survived but the gut-wrenching slaughter appears to have claimed another victim not related to the family.

A cameraman with a news channel died of a heart attack while covering the murders, the police said.

Police sources said a property dispute could be the reason behind the massacre but added that it was too early to say so with certainty.

According to the sources, Hasnen Anwar Warekar slit the throats of his parents, wife, several of his sisters and seven children, the youngest being his three-month-old daughter, after sedating them. He then hanged himself.

Hasnen's body, they said, was found hanging from the ceiling in one of the rooms with a knife in his hand at his family-owned house in the Kasarvadawali area of Thane, around 27km from Mumbai.

Thane joint commissioner of police Ashutosh Dhumbre said Hasnen had called his three sisters and their children from Koparkhairne in Navi Mumbai and Mahapoli near Bhiwandi for a "get-together", which he used to host frequently.

The commerce graduate who prepared income tax-related documents with a CA firm in Navi Mumbai is suspected to have offered them drinks laced with sedatives.

The police sources said Hasnen offered prayers around 3am at a mosque near his house. After returning home, he slit the throats of his family members one by one before committing suicide.

Around 5.30am, the lone survivor, Hasnen's sister Subiya Sojef Burmal, shouted for help from a window of the house. Neighbours then broke open the grill and pulled out the injured 22-year-old and admitted her to hospital. They also alerted the police.

"Hasnen slit the upper part of this sister's throat, she survived the attack and screamed for help. The survivor's in-laws, who were in a neighbouring house, heard her cries and tried opening the door, but it was locked from inside. The in-laws broke open the grill of a window on the ground floor and entered the house. It was then that the police were alerted," Dhumbre said.

The 14 bodies with the throats slit lay on the ground and first floors with blood everywhere in the house where Hasnen's family had been living for the past 10 years, the police said.

Dhumbre said Hasnen's mobile phone and laptop had been seized.

"Prima facie evidence suggests the accused bolted all the doors of the house and murdered his family while they were asleep. The accused then hanged himself. There were three rooms in the house, while he was in a room with his wife and two daughters on the first floor, his parents and sisters were in separate rooms on the ground floor," Dhumbre said.

The officer said property dispute could be behind the murders but nothing could be stated with certainty at this stage. He said blood samples, viscera and food samples collected from the house would be sent for forensic tests.

The police said the bodies were sent for post-mortem to Thane Civil Hospital.

It was at this hospital that the cameraman, identified as Ratan Radheshyam Bhowmik, was covering the massacre this morning when he complained of chest pain and collapsed.

Sources said Bhowmik had undergone an angioplasty about a year back. The police are trying to find out if he had visited the scene of the crime in Kasarvadawali.