site.btaWoman Arrested after Stabbing Rampage in Central Sofia, Mental Health Issues Reported

A 22-year-old woman was arrested after stabbing three men in central Sofia in three separate attacks on Tuesday. The head of the Sofia Directorate of the Interior, Chief Commissioner Lyubomir Nikolov, told the press at the scene of one of the attacks, that the attacker has a diagnosis for a mental disorder. 

She stabbed three men, aged 51, 48 and 21, and was detained by police as she was trying to attack more people. Two of the men had to be taken to hospital for treatment and the other received only minor injuries. Later in the day one was discharged but the other had to undergo "serious abdominal surgery", to use the words of Sofia's Deputy City Prosecutor Ivo Iliev.

Chief Commissioner Nikolov said, "These were not planned attacks but uncontrolled bouts of aggression by a woman who has a serious mental disorder". He also said that she has been treated multiple times at a mental health facility. "If it is found that she is not fit to be held criminally liable, measures will be taken to put her on treatment for her mental disorder," he added.

According to police, the attacks were unprovoked. 

At a news conference later in the day, Deputy City Prosecutor Ivo Iliev said that pre-trial proceedings have been initiated against the attacker for attempted murder. There is information that she has attacked other people as well, he added.  

According to Lyubomir Nikolov, police received the first call about the attacker from her brother, at 08:11 on Tuesday morning. She showed aggression against her brother and he locked her out of their apartment, knife in hand. She attacked a man some 800 m from her home, and then two more nearby.

"It is yet to be decided what measures will be taken to restrain the attacker considering her condition," he also said.