Dubai: A housemaid is in police custody for allegedly stabbing three children as they slept in their Al Warqa’a home, according to news reports on Sunday.
The Ethiopian woman faces charges of attempted murder, Emarat Al Youm reported, adding that the attack took place on Friday. The maid reportedly attempted suicide after the incident.
The children, who are reported to be in a stable condition, sustained multiple injuries after being stabbed multiple times.
It is believed that the maid’s actions were provoked by disagreements with the children’s parents. She is said to have been working for the family for a year and a half.
The maid claimed that her sponsors delayed her salary and did not allow her to travel, but her employer told the police that when the maid asked for leave, they told her to wait till schools close for the summer.
Dubai Police received a call from one of the children in Al Warqa’a area on Friday, the newspaper said on its website. When police and medics reached the house they found blood stains on the floor and the children hiding in the bathroom.
Incidents of Ethiopian housemaids attacking members of the family they work for have frequently been reported in the UAE and in a number of Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
In April last year, a UAE daily reported that an Ethiopian housemaid attacked the three-year-old daughter of her employer in Saudi Arabia with a knife, causing injuries to her arms.
Reports from 2010, also from a UAE daily, said an Ethiopian maid in Ras Al Khaimah attacked her sponsor, after he tried to free his wife whom she was threatening with the knife.
