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12/23/2024 04:43:27 am

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Abu Dhabi Mall Toilet Murder Prompts U.S. Embassy To Issue Safety Warning

Burqa

(Photo : REUTERS/Stringer) A woman wearing a full veil (niqab) walks along a street in the northern province of Raqqa March 31, 2014.

The U.S. Embassy in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) warned all Americans in Abu Dhabi to be on the watch, following the death on Wednesday of an American teacher who was stabbed by someone wearing a burqa inside the toilet of a mall.

The victim was 47-year-old Ibolya Ryan. She was found sprawled in a pool of blood in one of the toilets at the Bourik Mall, reports Daily Mail.

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Police said the attacker left at the scene of the crime a large kitchen knife used in the attack. The stabbing was preceded by a fight between Ryan and her attacker inside the women's toilet, reports Fox News.

Ryan is mother to twin 11-year-old boys. She teaches at the Al Oula kindergarten school in Abu Dhabi.

Initially a Hungarian citizen born in Romania, Ryan was later naturalized as a U.S. citizen. She had her teacher training in the U.S. and was assigned to the UAE in September 2013, said Ben Glickman, CEO of Footprints Resourcing, the agency that handled her deployment.

Glickman was the one who confirmed the identity of Ryan. He said the ex-husband of Ryan who is based in Europe, Paul, went to UAE to get their sons.


Ryan, who was Ibolya Balaszi when she was single, worked as a special education teacher in Denver, Colorado, where she also took a course in teaching English as a foreign language. Prior to her teaching job, she worked as an executive assistant in the U.S., an event planner in Hungary and Abu Dhabi and substitute teacher in Vienna.

According to CCTV footage released by detectives, the attacker waited for Ryan for an hour. Because the attacker was garbed in an abaya, black gloves and a niqab which covers the face, the detectives could not identify the gender of the killer, who after stabbing Ryan, calmly entered an elevator and left the mall through the car park entrance.

The warning issued by the U.S. Embassy is actually the second after it issued one in late October after an extremist Islamic website encouraged attacks on American and other foreign teachers in the Middle East. In the latest warning, it advised Americans in UAE to avoid crowds, especially in areas they are not familiar with and to maintain a low profile when in public.

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