Live crickets and worms cause commuter chaos

Our pick of the strange stories from around the world.

A bug in the transport system

A woman sparked chaos on New York's Subway transport system after being harassed by a group of teens. The woman, who was trying to sell boxes of live crickets and worms to commuters, reacted by throwing several boxes of the insects across the train. In the ensuing panic, another commuter pulled the emergency brake, stopping the train on the Manhattan Bridge and shutting off the air conditioning. Passengers were stuck in the carriage, unable to escape the heat or the crickets and worms, for more than half an hour.

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Woman cuts off arm and foot for insurance

A Vietnamese woman has reportedly paid a friend to cut off her foot and part of her arm in order to collect insurance money. Identified only as Ly Thi N, the 30-year-old admitted to police that she paid her friend £1,700 to remove the limbs before claiming she had been hit by a train. The insurance payout would have totalled more than £113,000.

Oregon woman on supermarket rampage

A 43-year-old woman from Glenwood, Oregon, has been arrested after she crashed her SUV through the front doors of a supermarket, drove up and down an aisle and then out through the rear doors of the building. Workers at the store say the woman became enraged when she was unable to purchase more than $2,000 (£1,500) worth of gift cards early on Tuesday morning. She was arrested at her home.