A 54-year-old woman in a bus in the Seine-Saint-Denis suburbs of Paris, was seriously injured after a man sprayed her with a flammable liquid and set her on fire.
The incident took place in the Noisy-le-Sec township at about 7.15pm on Saturday in an unresolved, haphazard attack.
The next day, police arrested a suspect, a 41-year-old man known to authorities. The man is believed to have sprayed the woman with a flammable liquid, possibly petrol, and then set her on fire before fleeing the bus. The bus driver and the victim’s partner were also injured, Le Parisien reports.
Bobigny’s prosecutor’s office said an investigation into the murder had been launched.
Five members of one family, including four children, killed in ‘Hammer and Knife’ attack in suburban Paris https://t.co/QgWK2ejlWF
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A witness, a 16-year-old named Ali, described the incident Le Parisienand said: ‘There were big flames in the bus. It smelled like something was burning. A man shouted, ‘Stop! Stop it! “It was very shocking. ”
Prosecutors say the victim was seriously burned to the scalp and neck and transported to a local hospital, but does not believe he is in critical condition.
Noisy-le-Sec Mayor Olivier Sarrabeyrouse, a member of the French Communist Party (PCF), reacted to the incident, saying he was “shocked, upset and anxious about this tragedy”.
The incident is just the latest act of extreme violence in the heavily migrating no-go suburbs of Paris in recent years.
The attack comes several months after five members of one family, including four children, were killed and five others were injured in a hammer and knife attack in the same congregation.
Police said the attack was possibly motivated by a family dispute and that two victims were found dead when police arrived on the scene, and the other three died at a local hospital an hour and a half later.
Server in Paris No-Go suburb killed over sandwich https://t.co/HvHr6xSQbA
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