Iowa woman accused of spraying, setting another woman on fire

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — Police in western Iowa said Monday they were seeking a woman suspected of assaulting and setting another woman on fire overnight.

The incident happened around 4:30 a.m. Monday, when Council Bluffs officers were called to North 15th Street and found a woman with severe burns outside a homeless services center, police said in a news release. The woman was taken to a hospital across the Missouri River in Omaha, Neb., for treatment, police said.

An investigation found that the victim was involved in a disturbance with a 37-year-old woman who sprayed the victim with a flammable substance and lit her on fire, police said. The suspect then hit the victim in the face with something as a witness tried to put out the flames and fled the scene, officials said.

Police are treating the incident as an attempted murder and said they had been unable to find the suspect by late Monday morning.