Police and paramedics were called to the Rockhampton address where the 42-year-old woman lived at about 6:30pm on Tuesday.

They found her with “horrific” wounds, and were unable to save her.

Two of her three children were home at the time of the attack.

“It’s a horrific scene for all included, especially those children to see that happen to their mum,” Acting Inspector Luke Peachey told reporters on Wednesday.

“We’ve been police officers for a number of years, and this is one of the worst things we’ve seen.

“Three children have lost a mother, a father and mother have lost their daughter… so it’s an absolutely tragic event.”

A man – who was known to the woman – was found with self-inflicted wounds about two hours later.

He is in police custody in hospital, undergoing surgery for his non-life-threatening wounds.

Peachey would not confirm if he is the children’s father or if the attack was domestic violence.

He also would not rule out the possibility the man was under the influence of drugs at the time.

Police believe they found the “sharp-edged” murder weapon at the crime scene, but are awaiting forensic test results.

No charges have been laid, and police are expected to interview the man in hospital when he has recovered from surgery.

Peachey said the man and woman were known to each other, but the man did not live at the house where the woman was killed.

The man has not yet been charged and how he came to be at the house is still under investigation.

“Three children have lost their mother, a mother and father lost their daughter,”  Peachey said.

He said the woman’s children were now in the care of their maternal grandfather.

“The scene is quite horrific.

“This is one of the worst things we’ve seen.

“It’s something we don’t often see here and we’ll throw every resource available into this investigation.”

A neighbour, who did not want to be named, said she had only met the people living in the house a couple of times.

She spoke of screams coming from the house last night.

“A lot of young children in the street and around that time of the evening it’s not unusual to hear those noises and as horrific as it sounds, it actually sounded like people were almost playing, that level of screaming and then I guess as neighbours we started to realise that the tone had taken on more of a hysteria and then it stopped,” she said.

-AAP