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A woman in South Korea is facing criminal charges after she allegedly set fire to her apartment building while attempting to kill a cockroach with an improvised flamethrower, resulting in the death of her neighbour.
According to People, which cited local authorities, police in Osan — about 30 miles south of Seoul — 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, authorities plan to charge her with causing death by negligence and accidentally starting a fire. The BBC also reported that the woman admitted she “tried to torch the cockroach with a lighter and a flammable spray,” adding that she had used the same method on previous occasions.
Investigators said the fire spread rapidly through the building, forcing several residents to flee 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 rushed to the hospital but later died from her injuries.
