One police officer was moderately to severely injured and two other officers were lightly injured Thursday morning when a person threatening suicide set them on fire.
The police officers were treated by Magen David Adom (MDA) staff and evacuated to Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa for medical treatment.
The police officer who suffered moderate to serious injuries was evacuated fully conscious with burns to his upper body.
The suspect, a 33-year-old resident of Kiryat Motzkin, was arrested after a short police chase.
The incident occurred at the Sonol gas station near the Kiryon Mall in Kiryat Bialik. Eyewitnesses said that the police officers were called to a gas station near Kiryon following reports of a person threatening to harm himself.
During the attempts to calm the individual and prevent him from harming himself, the suspect poured gasoline on one of the police officers, setting him aflame.
MDA paramedic Ibrahim Kabiya related, "When I arrived at the scene, I notices a relative who had suffered burns to his upper body and two other men who were lightly injured. Together with other MDA personnel, we provided them with medical treatment and evacuated them to the hospital with one of them in moderate condition with second-degree burns and two whose condition was mild."
A source familiar with the details told Channel 12 News, "The man who set the policemen on fire lives near the gas station. He came with a bottle with the aim of filling it with gas, and when he was pevented from doing so, he started to go crazy. He forcibly took gas from a man who was filling his gas tank, ran towards his house, and there met police officers and set them on fire."