Purported to be a victim of Spontaneous Human Combustion (SHC), a well-known Mauritius-born woman in her 40s was seen to have 'burst' into flames on a bench in a park in Flensburg, northern Germany. The passerby, who witnessed the event, promptly removed his jacket and rushed to help the woman with it.
In most accounts of spontaneous human combustion, the victims more often than not burn to ashes. Experts liken the human body in this controversial phenomenon to a candle where the flame is sparked from within, the body fat serves as the wax that keeps that flame lit, and the victim's clothing as the wick.
Despite the rescuer's heroic efforts, the woman was quite severely burned. She was immediately rushed by air ambulance to a specialist burns unit in Lübeck where she remained in critical condition until she passed away.
Intriguingly, witnesses attested that the woman did not make a single sound as the flames enveloped her body. Speculations rose in part due to this, including theories of suicide and an attack. Some thought the woman may have been stabbed and subsequently set on fire to hide the knife marks. Some tied two men seen fleeing the scene soon after the incident to this theory.
Public prosecutor Otto Gosch was quick to dissuade such speculation: "We have no evidence that points to a third party fault."
While attack has been ruled out as the main explanation, probable suicide is still a consideration. The woman's death shook the small Flensburg community of 80,000 people just 160 km north of Hamburg. According to prosecutor Ulrike Stahlmann-Liebelt: "The victim has lived in Flensburg for a long time and has family here."
Investigations into the cause of death will continue, especially the angle of spontaneous flames with no obvious origin.
