A 26-year-old woman became the victim of a horrific attack on a Chicago train Monday night, occurring slightly over a week after another rider was stabbed at a station in the city, police have reported.
Authorities allege that a 45-year-old man threw a flammable liquid on the woman and ignited it following a heated dispute on a Chicago Transit Authority Blue Line train near Clark and Lake streets in the Loop at approximately 9:25 p.m., as per various reports.
When the train reached the Clark/Lake Station, the suspect fled the scene, leaving the severely injured woman to stumble out of the train car, with witnesses reporting that the flames had extinguished by the time law enforcement arrived, according to NBC 5 Chicago.
The woman was immediately transported to Stroger Hospital, where she remains in critical condition, suffering from extensive burns.
A shocked bystander told FOX 32 Chicago, “Seeing her on the ground, she was struggling to breathe and clearly in immense pain.”
“The situation was dire, with numerous medics and responders rushing to her aid,” the witness added.
The Blue Line was reportedly shut down for hours after the attack, though service resumed normally by Tuesday morning.
A person of interest was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon and the investigation remains ongoing, police said, NBC reported.
The fiery assault comes more than a week after a knife-wielding lunatic pulled a large blade from his backpack and plunged it into the chest of a 27 year-old woman sitting on a bench at the UIC-Halsted Blue Line platform near the University of Illinois Chicago on Nov. 10, according to police.
The woman sustained a laceration to the chest and was taken to a nearby hospital.
The brute ran off, and it appears he still remains at large.
The recent spate of commuter attacks comes nearly three months after 34-year-old Decarlos Brown Jr. allegedly fatally stabbed Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutksa with a pocket knife in an unprovoked attack aboard the Lynx Blue Line train in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Aug. 22.
Brown, a homeless schizophrenic, was swiftly arrested and indicted last month for violence against a railroad carrier and mass transportation system resulting in death.
The federal charges make the disturbed felon eligible for the death penalty.
