Hungarian special forces arrested on Friday a 24-year-old man suspected of killing four members of his family and wounding three in a machete attack, state news agency MTI reported.
Jutast Csanad Horvath was hospitalised with serious injuries after being caught hiding in a bush holding the weapon, the head of the Counterterrorism Unit told journalists at the scene.
The attack took place around 8:00 am in Kulcs, a village of 2,500 inhabitants on the Danube in central Hungary about 60 kilometres from the capital Budapest.
Horvath is suspected of murdering his father, his grandparents and his older brother in a family dispute. His mother, sister and another close relative were badly wounded and hospitalised.
"The tragedy occurred in an ordinary family", Kulcs mayor Csaba Kiss said, adding that they did not have close ties with the local community. Horvath's father worked in the construction business and had served a jail term for fraud related to state benefits.
The Counterterrorism Unit was called in after rumours that hostages had been taken but police spokesman Laszlo Garamvolgyi said these were unfounded.
Some 135 police officers along with boats and helicopters took part in the hunt for the killer after a neighbour saw a man with a bleeding head staggering out the front gate of the family house, MTI said.
Seven people were found badly wounded in the house but four died before they could be taken to hospital. A 57-year-old man was in stable condition after an emergency operation, the hospital in the nearby town of Szekesfehervar said.
The incident came some three weeks after a 21-year-old man stabbed his mother to death in Tatabanya, a town 55 kilometres from Budapest, and attacked his father before throwing himself out of a 10th floor window.