SUICIDE ATTEMPT

Hokitika Guardian, 2 September 1931, Page 5

SUICIDE ATTEMPT

A GERMAN SENSATION. (United Preso Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) BERLIN, September 1. While a three-engined Lufthansa air liner, with eight passengers, wa s flying over holly forest country en route from Munich to Berlin, an explosion occurred in the cloakroom. The control officer battered down the door, and he found the compartment in flames, and also found that a passenger was feeding the blaze with a bottle of petrol. The passenger was overpowered, bound and gagged, and was handed over to the police who had been communicated with by wireless A later message states that the arrested incendiary is Ivarle Butte, who allegedly attempted to obtain insur-. ance as the result ,of two attempts at suicide. , f While in custody, he opened his veins, and at present is dying in hospital. - Hutte, who is a plain family man, wa s recently seized with a wild fit of extravagance. He secretly drew out, all of his wife’s savings, and he spent them in a few days at Munich, where he bought an air ticket. His intention was to 'obtain for his family the two thousand Eve hundred sterling for which German air passengers are insured.