Romania: Subway Train Murder Shocks Nation
By Ana Maria Luca
A 36-year-old woman was arrested on Wednesday in Bucharest after being caught on camera murdering a young woman by pushing her onto the tracks at a metro station.
Romanian police detained a woman early Wednesday morning after she was caught on surveillance cameras pushing another woman to her death at a Bucharest metro station and attempting to murder a second person.
The police arrested the woman after circulating pictures of her to the media after the two incidents, asking the public for help in tracing her whereabouts and deploying several patrol units to the public transport system.
Police said the woman was incoherent during questioning and could not give any reason for her actions.
The murder happened on Tuesday night when the subway station was almost empty.
The attacker was caught on camera as she watched her 25-year-old victim browsing her mobile phone and pushed her on the tracks as a train was coming out of the tunnel.
The footage shows that the victim managed to get up and tried to climb back onto the platform, but her attacker pushed her down again.
Previously the same woman had been caught on camera trying to push another woman onto the tracks, but the victim resisted and managed to run away.
In a previous, unconnected incident on November 10, a man was rescued after he tried to commit suicide by jumping onto the tracks.
Over the past seven years, 23 people have been involved in such incidents in the Bucharest metro. Nine of them committed suicide.
Metro stations in Bucharest do not have protective fences to prevent such incidents.
