A woman in South Korea is facing criminal charges after she allegedly set fire to her apartment building while trying to kill a cockroach with an improvised flamethrower, a blaze that led to the death of her neighbour, according to reports by PEOPLE and the BBC.
According to PEOPLE, which reported the incident on Wednesday, police in Osan, about 30 miles south of Seoul, said they have issued an arrest warrant for the woman, who is in her 20s, describing her as “a flight risk.”
The fire reportedly broke out around 5:30 a.m. on Monday, October 20, after the woman allegedly used “a lighter and a flammable spray” to burn a cockroach inside her apartment.
Citing South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, they intend to charge her with accidentally starting a fire and causing death by negligence.
The BBC, which had earlier reported the case on Tuesday, quoted local police as saying the woman admitted she “tried to torch the cockroach with a lighter and a flammable spray,” adding that “she had used the method before.”
Investigators said the fire quickly spread through the building, forcing several residents to attempt escape through windows.
According to Yonhap, the victim was a Chinese national in her 30s who had recently given birth to her first child two months ago.
When smoke filled her fifth-floor apartment, she and her husband reportedly opened a window and called for help, passing their baby to a neighbour in the adjacent building.
“The woman’s husband managed to leap across to the neighbouring building, but when the new mother tried to do the same, she fell five stories and sustained serious injuries,” PEOPLE reported. She was taken to the hospital but later died.
The BBC also confirmed that “one of the woman’s neighbours died after falling to the ground in a failed attempt to escape through a window,” while eight other residents suffered minor injuries from smoke inhalation.
Police in Osan said investigations are ongoing and that the case will be transferred to local prosecutors once completed.
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