A pensioner in Russia's Far East on Tuesday entered her district's administrative building and threatened to set herself on fire unless officials agreed to quickly hook up her apartment with cold water.
The woman, in her 60s, doused herself with gasoline and issued her threat in front of officials in Kamchatka's Yelizovsky district.
The officials and police officers tried to talk the woman out of taking drastic action before managing to wrench the lighter out of her hands, a local police spokesman told Interfax.
The cold water pipes in her building were replaced a couple of months ago and since then the supply to her apartment has been cut off, the spokesman said.
The local authorities promised to send contractors to fix the plumbing in her apartment on Wednesday, while police took her home so that she could wash of the gasoline, which had already started to eat away at her skin.
No criminal charges will be leveled against the pensioner, who lives in the village of Dvurechye, because she was acting out of desperation and didn't threaten anyone other than herself, the spokesman added.
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