UPDATE (13/8/12, 16:10): The condition of both four-year-old girls has now been upgraded and they are now longer in a critical condition.

ORIGINAL STORY (13/8/12, 10:09): Two four-year-old girls are in a critical condition after their father stabbed them while they lay in Rigshospital’s paediatric centre yesterday according to police.

“The last report that we have is that they are both in a critical condition but we are of course hoping for the best,” vice police inspector Lau Thygesen from Copenhagen Police said.

The attack took place in Rigshospitalets paediatric ward, Ronald McDonald Hus, where the family of four were staying because one of the girls was suffering from a long-term illness.

When the police arrived, the father jumped out of a first floor window of the building on Juliane Maries Vej and sustained injuries from the fall.

The father is in a stable condition after needing an operation and is now being guarded by police.

Once his condition has stabilised, police say they will arrest him and charge him with double attempted murder. Preliminary charges will be issued against him in absentia at Copenhagen City Court today.

The father’s motive is unclear as police would not go into details about the events that unfolded in the hospital out of respect for the family.

“We have not questioned the father and mother yet so we don’t know the motive, but we are considering the case closed and are treating it is a family tragedy,” Thygesen said.

The mother of the twins called the police and said that the father had threatened to kill the girls.

The father is in his 50s while the mother is in her 20s.