A woman took her own life by slashing her throat with an electric chainsaw in front of customers at a shopping centre in France.
The woman, reportedly in her 60s, used the machine to kill herself at around 4pm on Saturday in the car park of a DIY store in Gap, Hautes-Alpes.
Firefighters, police, and an ambulance crew rushed to the scene but the woman could not be rescued following the incident.
An investigation has since been opened by the Gap public prosecutor’s office to determine the cause of death, according to local reports.
The woman was known to have suicidal thoughts, reports Le Parisien.
The public prosecutor of Gap, Marion Lozac’hmeur, told TF1info on Sunday morning: ‘An investigation into the cause of death has been opened. It has been entrusted to the Gap police station, following the suicide of this woman born in 1965’.
It comes two months after a lesbian school principal took her own life by jumping off a cliff on the first day of term after a campaign of homophobic abuse.
Caroline Grandjean, 42, had contacted France‘s suicide helpline hours before she jumped 30 metres off a steep hill near Anglards-de-Salers in Cantal, where she lived.
The woman, reportedly in her 60s, used the machine to kill herself at around 4pm on Saturday in the car park of a DIY store in Gap, Hautes-Alpes
The woman had been subjected to homophobic harassment and death threats at the small nursery school where she taught in Moussages, a village with a population of 300.
Even though Grandjean was never public about her sexuality, it is understood that someone in the village discovered that she was married to a woman and began the hateful campaign.
It is understood that Grandjean attempted suicide in recent months before taking her own life on September 1.
She contacted the national suicide prevention line at around 10:30am local time before jumping off the cliff. Because the authorities had been alerted, police were able to quickly locate her body.
And last month, a nine-year-old girl took her own life after being bullied at school over her weight in France.
The child, named Sara, was bullied at school and was found dead at her home in Sarreguemines, a commune in Moselle, northeastern France.
The death appeared to have been ‘a voluntary act by the girl’ and she left a note to her parents.
Sara was the victim of repeated bullying over her appearance at school.
