THE BLOODY discovery of a gang of occult-obsessed children who had mutilated themselves in a Catford home has prompted a warning to parents from police.

The gothic kids, all devotees of rock star and self-proclaimed satanist Marilyn Manson, were found at a house in Broadfield Road by specialist officers after a phone call from one of the missing children's parents.

Police are calling on parents of children who show an interest in the occult to be vigilant and said the discoveries in Catford were "probably the tip of the iceberg".

Two boys aged 14, another boy aged 15 and a 14-year-old girl, all from Bromley, were discovered in the semi-detached home of an 18-year-old man, whose parents had gone on holiday. They had all been slashing their arms and wrists.

The man's parents had padlocked all the doors in the house, except his bedroom and a couple of rooms downstairs.

Mottingham PC Jim Duncan, who specialises in the dangers of the occult, said he and his colleagues were "terrified" by the mental state of the children when they were found.

He said: "They seemed happy in their own little cocoon, it was as if we were disrupting their thoughts.

"When we realised what was going on and began speaking to them about God and Satan, they launched a really venomous verbal attack.

"The 14-year-old girl is very intelligent. She told me she would be dead by the time she was 15.

"It was a genuine statement on her part. She wasn't trying to shock me."

He added: "The kids are so far into self-harming and Marilyn Manson, that nothing else matters."

The girl, who had been off school because of depression, had recently overdosed on Paracetamol tablets.

The youths are known to have scrawled disturbing poetry, apparently written in blood, on the walls of a car parks, stating: "I'm bleeding in mind and soul".

PC Duncan is urging concerned parents and those worried by their involvement in the occult to call him on 07703 682820.