French care worker held over deaths of six pensioners

France has a rapidly ageing population

A care worker at a home for the elderly in Chambery in the French Alps has been arrested on suspicion of poisoning six pensioners to death.

She admitted having wanted to relieve their suffering but denied that she had sought to kill them, a police source told French media.
The six pensioners all died in the space of two months.
When a woman of 84 died last month, an autopsy uncovered suspicious traces of drugs, France Info radio reports.

An examination was carried out because the woman at the Jacob-Bellecombette home near Chambery had suddenly fallen into a coma on 27 November, dying two days later.
An analysis found she had an overdose of non-prescribed medication.
The suspect, who is in her thirties, "admits she wanted to relieve the suffering of six people", the police source said.
She reportedly admitted giving a "cocktail of medication" to six people who were "mostly" "elderly if not very elderly" and who suffered from "chronic illnesses".
She is due to appear before a judge on Thursday to learn what, if any, charges she will face in connection with the deaths, AFP news agency reports.
Earlier in the week, a source close to the inquiry told French radio that aside from the death of the 84-year-old woman, investigators were looking into several other "troubling" circumstances at the home, the BBC's Christian Fraser reports from Paris.
The management did not comment formally on the case but one source told the media it was of "real seriousness."