File photo: A crime scene specialist of the police looks out of window of an appartment n Wallenfels, southern Germany, where the bodies of infants were discovered  Photo: Getty Images

The husband was questioned but was allowed to go free.

Andrea G.’s current partner, 55, who had been arrested together with the woman, has also been cleared, according to police.

The investigation is continuing, with results from autopsies on the babies expected in the next few days.

Senior public prosecutor Martin Dippold said: “The age and sex is unclear. The bodies are in a very bad condition.”

Police were alerted on Thursday by a tenant who found two dead infants in the family’s former home while cleaning out a disused sauna-turned-storeroom, German newspaper Bild reported.

When officers arrived at the apartment they uncovered a further five bodies in the store room, wrapped in hand towels and placed in plastic bags, and an eighth body in the attic.

Police launched a hunt for the presumed mother of the babies, and Andrea G. and her partner were arrested on Friday night at a nearby guest house.

Andrea G. had reportedly moved out of the family home in late September following a row with her husband, with the woman having previously spoken while she was drunk of hiding babies’ bodies, according to Bild.