Woman found burnt at Balestier field believed to have set herself on fire

The woman who burnt to death on a field at the Ceylon Sports Club at Balestier Road may have set herself on fire.

On Thursday morning, a charred female corpse was found at the field after eyewitness saw the woman on fire before falling to the ground.

According to a Lianhe Zaobao report, the woman - who was dressed in an exercise top and shorts - was seen by Appanah Apparoo, a groundsman of the club, carrying a plastic bag of things as she walked behind a white screen.

About 40 minutes after the sighting, Apparoo was shocked to see the woman on fire as she walked out from behind the screen, before falling to the ground.

He immediately went to report the incident to the club's manager, S.K John. Along with a canteen worker, the pair rushed towards the woman and covered her with two sacks to put out the flame.

The manager called the police, and the authorities arrived soon afterwards. Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene.

Speaking to The New Paper, club manager S.K John said that he went to investigate the incident in the aftermath and saw "a cigarette box, two boxes of matches and a bottle of kerosene".

He also said that he overheard one woman, who was in a group with the dead woman's mother at the scene, tell the police that the deceased had a mental problem and that before she died, she suffered hallucinations of people chasing her.

He also overheard a relative claiming that the family had made a police report about the dead woman's condition earlier.

The police have classified this as an unnatural death, and are loooking into this.

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