A 56-year old nurse died after a 78-year-old man set her on fire Tuesday morning at a clinic in Holon, south of Tel Aviv.
The victim, Tova Karero, a nurse at a Clalit Health Services clinic on Kaplan Street, died of her wounds at the scene after the patient, a Holocaust survivor known to be mentally ill, allegedly lobbed flammable gasoline in her direction, setting her on fire.
Tova Karero: Facebook
The suspect fled the scene and after a short manhunt was apprehended by security forces, according to police. First responders received report of the incident at approximately 8:45 a.m.
A Dan Region police spokesman said that the suspect admitted to throwing the flammable substance while under questioning but maintained that he did not mean to kill her.
Speaking to press at the scene, Ayalon District Commander Sigal Bar-Tzvi said that the man was “apparently not satisfied [with his treatment] and while in an argument doused flammable material on the nurse that was treating him at the time. Material that he brought with him beforehand and lit.”
Bar-Tzvi said the suspect took off in a car and was apprehended by large police forces, adding, that this was “an extraordinary event and particularly shocking.”
A woman named Dorit who witnessed the event spoke Army radio. “The door to room six opened and suddenly I see a bottle on fire. A plastic fruit juice bottle that was thrown into the room,” she said, adding, “All of a sudden there was black smoke and boom boom like explosions.”
MDA medic Ofer Paranteki told reporters: “When we arrived there was thick smoke at the scene after the fire was extinguished we located a woman without signs of life and determined her death at the scene.”
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