Police construct profile to identify rest home arsonist

Porirua police are building a criminal profile to catch an arsonist who threw a suspected firebomb into the rest home flat of an elderly Wellington resident at the weekend.

The 79-year-old woman was in bed listening to the radio on Sunday just before midnight when the missile crashed through the window of her unit at Redwood Retirement Village in Tawa.

Although the woman was attached to an oxygen tank, she fled for her life through a ranch slider and screamed for help from her neighbours.

The woman suffered smoke inhalation, and is now staying with family.

Detective Inspector Andrew Fabish from Porirua CIB said they were racing to find the arsonist, who might also be connected with other recent arson in the Wellington region.

"At the moment we are just going hard investigating people we know who have been involved in arson before and getting criminal profiling done of who we think might have been a likely person to have done this."

Mr Fabish said he hoped they would have something positive to report within the next couple of days.

He said they were finding out where other known arsonists in the area were on Sunday night, what they were doing and who had an alibi.

- NZPA