"This sad story was reported from Homagama where a mother living on Hospital Road went before the Magistrate with the help of a lawyer and pleaded for court to take over the care of her children", 'The Daily Mirror' reported today.
"The mother is reported to have taken this less drastic step as she was unable to dump her children into a river", the newspaper said.
It is learnt that her husband had deserted her four months ago with the mother and the children having to fend for themselves.
She lives in a rented house and the owner had asked her to vacate the premises as she was unable to pay the rent.
The woman's parents had died sometime ago and her only source of help was her elder sister who is also no longer able to help her due to dire straits, it said.
The Magistrate, having listened to the tragic tale, had summoned officials of the Probation and Child Protection Authority and handed the children over to them, the newspaper said.
While the eldest of the children, a boy, is aged six-years-old, the youngest also a male is two and a half years old with four-year-old twins in-between.
Earlier this month, three-year-old Amila Sandaruwan died after battling for days in a hospital after his mother allegedly threw him into the Kalu Ganga river about 40 kms south of Colombo.
The boy failed to recover from coma following the incident.