GEORGE TOWN: A mentally-challenged woman is in critical condition at the Penang Hospital after she slashed her body repeatedly with a knife and set herself on fire at her home here, according to the police.
North-East District Police chief ACP Che Zaimani Che Awang said today the 30-year-old woman had suffered 40 per cent burns on her body in the incident at about 11.30 am yesterday at a unit of the government quarters in Jalan Ayer Itam.
He said the woman’s elder brother called an ambulance and the police after he saw her blood-stained body.
Their mother, who was taking care of her, had gone to send their youngest sibling for studies in Kuala Lumpur, he added.
Che Zaimani said the brother, when checking the rest of the house while waiting for the ambulance and police, heard his sister calling him and found that she had set herself on fire.
“The brother and two policemen who had arrived by then put out the fire and the ambulance took her to the hospital,” he said.
He said the hospital confirmed that the woman was mentally-challenged and had last received treatment at the psychiatric clinic last week. – Bernama
