Detroit has averaged about a killing per day in early 2004.

DETROIT (AP) – A woman and four children were tied up and beaten to death in this city, which already had been shaken by a surge of killings this year.

A 13-year-old girl escaped from the house where a 33-year-old woman, a 16-year-old boy and three girls, ages 9 to 14, were found dead Thursday. The girl alerted authorities, who took a suspect into custody, police said.

Police gave no motive for the slayings and released no other information on the victims or the suspect.

Deputy Chief Cara Best said police found the weapon they believe was used. But Best would not say what it was.

Dozens of people stood behind yellow police tape that blocked off the street in front of the grayish bungalow. Trash was strewn in the street and in nearby vacant lots.

A group of five young women arrived on the scene and were taken aside by police. They then began weeping, moaning and yelling, “No!”

A young man came running across a field, yelling, “Where’s my sister? Where’s my sister?” He approached a group of people and threw himself on the grass, crying.

The killings came amid a wave of violence that has swept the city since the beginning of the year.

After a significantly reduced homicide rate in 2003, Detroit began the year averaging about a killing a day.

On Feb. 16, two police officers were gunned down during a traffic stop.

On Sunday, a toddler was accidentally killed when a woman taking care of her handled a shotgun carelessly, police said. The woman was charged with involuntary manslaughter.