(CNN) -- A man in eastern Austria used a homemade firebomb to kill his wife's elderly parents, police said Saturday.
The 48-year-old man then tried to commit suicide by stabbing himself in
the stomach, police said. He is in an induced coma but is expected to
survive.
The incident happened at 10 p.m. (4 p.m. ET) Friday in
Hartberg, a town in Austria's Styria region, about 22 miles (35.5
kilometers) from the Hungarian border, said Chief Anton Kiesl of the
state police homicide division.
Kiesl said the man spread gas in
the room of his 84-year-old in-laws and then lit a homemade propane gas
bottle and threw it at them, burning them alive.
The
mother-in-law had diabetes, and her legs had been amputated, so she was
unable to flee and died in her bed, Kiesl said. The father-in-law was
able to flee but died soon afterward; police found his body on a garden
bench near the family's apartment, Kiesl said.
The attack set
one room of the apartment on fire, but firefighters were able to keep
it from spreading to neighboring apartments, he said.