Italian woman critical after ex-boyfriend sets her ablaze

Lucca (Italy), Aug 2 (IANS/AKI) A 46-year-old mother of three was fighting for her life in a central Italian hospital on Tuesday with 80 per cent burns after her ex-partner allegedly doused her in petrol and set her on fire.

Police have arrested a 50-year-old man over the horrific attack which took place at a warehouse in the grounds of a former hospital in the Tuscan city of Lucca where she used to work.

The woman, named in local reports as Vania Vannucchi, was allegedly attacked from behind as she got out of her car to meet her ex to talk through the end of their relationship.

Vannucci's former colleagues at the warehouse describing hearing terrible screams and found her engulfed in flames, which they put out with pails of water and wet rags, said local news site LuccainDiretta.

"It was horrendous. She was a human torch," said one of Vannucci's ex-colleagues who was the first on the scene.

As she was put on a stretcher to be taken to Cisanello di Pisa hospital's burns unit, Vannucci told her ex-colleagues and paramedics that her attacker was her ex-boyfriend. "It was him," she was heard to say.

Vannucci is divorced and works for a cooperative that supplies social and health services to local hospitals. Her alleged attacker is understood to be a former colleague.

--IANS/AKI

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