A nanny admits she killed and dismembered the parents of a baby that died in her care.

A nanny admits she killed and dismembered the parents of her young charge with an electric saw, but says she acted in self-defence.

Hui Zhang, a Chinese nanny who was working in Paris, claims the parents were furious after learning that their two-month-old boy had died in Hui’s care and attacked her and her boyfriend with a butcher’s knife.

“It’s true, I killed them, and I will regret it for the rest of my life,” the 34-year-old said at the beginning of the trial on Tuesday, The Guardian reports.

She told police the baby she was looking after died in his sleep, so Hui and her boyfriend, 34-year-old Te Lu, decided to offer the parents money so they would not report the boy’s death.

The court heard the couple met Hui and Te at their home, where Hui “was not able to tell them to their faces that their child was dead, so she brought the baby’s body into the sitting room”.

She told police the angry couple attacked them with a butcher’s knife and she killed them in self-defence.

But a lawyer for the child’s mother disputes the claim, saying the co-accused had equipped themselves with weapons before the meeting.

Hui then chopped the parents’ bodies with an electric saw, using the noise of the washing machine to disguise the power tool, and placed the body parts in bin bags.

Te denied helping Hui kill the couple – saying he became unconscious during the fight and while his girlfriend chopped up the bodies – but he admits he helped dispose of the remains.

“I was sucked into a whirlwind of nightmares but I am innocent,” he told the court.

In June 2012, two joggers found a dismembered leg in a Parisian forest. A human torso was located days later.

Hui and Te came forward and took police to other body parts hidden around the forest.

The baby’s body – which Hui claims she threw into bins with some of the other remains – was never located and the case relating to his death was dismissed.

The trial continues in Paris.

*Feature image of Vincennes forest via Flickr.