A pregnant woman and a man have been found dead at a home in the outback Queensland town of Charleville, in an apparent murder-suicide after a protracted overnight standoff with police. Police confirmed on Thursday that a toddler, who was found unharmed, had been at the home during the eight-hour siege that began on Wednesday evening. When specialist officers entered the home, just before 1.45am, they found that a 45-year-old man and a 23-year-old woman were dead. The incident will be investigated by Queensland police’s ethical standards command because it occurred during a police operation. Assistant police commissioner Matthew Vanderbyl told reporters on Thursday that the situation became “quite dynamic and quite threatening to police quite quickly”, prompting the need for specialist officers and a negotiator.