SHARE
COPY LINK

FIRE

Man held for setting his wife on fire

A man in Malmö in southern Sweden is suspected of having set his wife on fire following a domestic dispute stemming from her request for a divorce.

Man held for setting his wife on fire

The 38-year-old woman received serious burns in the incident, but her injuries are reportedly not life threatening.

“She has injuries from her midsection and upward and on the entire front of her body…both her her torso and arms. But her face is in pretty good shape,” police spokesperson Peter Martin told the local Skånska Dagbladet newspaper.

According to Martin, investigators believe the woman was drenched in a flammable liquid which was then ignited by her 53-year-old husband.

“The woman wanted a divorce but the man didn’t. He was said to be very controlling,” police spokesperson Anders Lindell told the Expressen newspaper.

The couple’s two children were also present in the apartment at the time, but were unharmed in the incident and have since been taken in by neighbours.

Police received a call shortly after noon on Sunday about a disturbance in a flat in the city’s Rosengård district.

A short time later, emergency services received a call about a fire at the same address.

When fire crews arrived they were met by a woman who had fled out of the apartment. Her clothes had been burned and she was taken by ambulance to Skåne University Hospital in Malmö.

“We heard there was a fire in the building, but when we got there we only found a little smoke in the apartment. A woman whose clothes had been burned ran out of the flat,” emergency services commander Mats Steer told Expressen.

The 53-year-old husband who was still in the apartment was overpowered by police and apprehended on suspicions of attempted murder with an alternative charge of aggravated assault.

The man was placed in arrest later in the evening and interrogated about the incident and denies committing any crime.

Another man was also taken to the police station for questioning, but only as a witness.

TT/The Local/dl

twitter.com/thelocalsweden

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

FIRE

Barcelona fire kills four, including two children

A fire ripped through an abandoned bank occupied by squatters in central Barcelona on Tuesday, killing four people, including a baby and a three year-old boy, Spanish firefighters said.

Police and firefighters gather outside an abandoned building where a blaze broke out early on November 30, 2021 in Barcelona, killing four people.
Police and firefighters gather outside an abandoned building where a blaze broke out early on November 30, 2021 in Barcelona, killing four people. (Photo by Pau BARRENA / AFP)

“While we were battling the fire, we found four people. Emergency services tried to revive them but unfortunately they failed, they could not do anything to save them,” the head of the firefighting operation, Ángel López, told reporters.

Firefighters rescued four other people who were inside the building while putting out the blaze, he added.

Those four were treated for smoke inhalation.

Firefighters rushed to the scene at around 6 am after being warned that a blaze had broken out in the building, Mr Lopez said.

While Mr López said it was not clear how the four dead people were related, Barcelona-based daily newspaper La Vanguardia said they were all members of a Romanian family.

A spokesman for Catalonia’s regional police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, said an investigation had been opened into the causes of the fire.

In December 2020, four people were killed after a blaze ripped through an industrial complex occupied by squatters, many of them African migrants, near Barcelona.

Over 100 squatters were believed to be living in precarious conditions at the abandoned complex in Badalona, a suburban town north of the city.

In addition to the four deaths, more than 20 people were injured in the blaze.

SHOW COMMENTS