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A man and woman were found slain in a south Minneapolis apartment Thursday afternoon in an apparent murder-suicide, a police spokesman said.

Officers were called about 3 p.m. to the apartment building in the 2700 block of Cedar Avenue after two people who knew the pair found the bodies, said Officer Corey Schmidt, the spokesman.

"At this point, we're leaning toward this being murder-suicide," said Schmidt. The two people who discovered the bodies were taken to police headquarters downtown for questioning, but neither is considered a suspect, Schmidt said.

He said the victims had some kind of "prior relationship," but did not specify what it was. The victims' names and ages were not released. Police also offered no information about the causes of death or whether a weapon was found at the scene.

Hours after the bodies were discovered, the street outside the three-story brick apartment building in the middle of the block was mostly empty, except for two parked police squads. Hours later, several of the female victim's relatives and friends gathered outside, watching as a homicide detective walked in and out of the mid-level apartment where the bodies were found.

One man said through an interpreter that the dead woman was his sister and that police hadn't allowed him to go inside to see the body. Visibly shaken, he declined to say more.

The victims' names will be released by the Hennepin County medical examiner's office, which will also determine the cause and manner of death.

Libor Jany • 612-673-4064 Twitter@:StribJany