Moscow child beheading: nanny sent for psychiatric tests

Police in Moscow are carrying out psychiatric tests on a nanny arrested for allegedly beheading a little girl in her care.

The woman, identified in Russian media as Gyulchekhra Bobokulova, from Uzbekistan, was filmed walking with the severed head of a child in her hand near Oktyabrskoye Pole metro station, in the north-west of the city, yesterday morning.

Local reporters claimed she shouted: "I hate democracy. I am a terrorist. I want you dead." She was apparently heard screaming: "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great), although much of what is said in the video footage is "incomprehensible", says Sky News.

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The headless body of a child was found by firefighters responding to a blaze in the apartment where the woman worked. The victim reportedly had learning disabilities and was aged three or four years old.

"Investigators suspect that the nanny waited till the parents had left the apartment with the elder child then killed the little girl and set the apartment on fire," says Russia Today. "It's been alleged she later put the dead child's head in a bag and took a tram to the metro station. The motive behind the crime is not clear."

Investigators have ordered Bobokulova to undergo psychiatric tests to establish whether she is "capable of understanding the significance of her actions", Moscow officials said. She was also taken back to the scene of the crime yesterday afternoon to "re-enact" her moves, says Russia Today.

Sources told the government-funded television network Bobokulova had worked as a nanny to the girl for two years, although did not have a work permit.

A family friend told the MK.ru news website the woman had been "treated like family" by her employers.