A Bulgarian woman, 73, has died after setting herself on fire inside a cell in the prison of the French town of Joux-la-Ville, department of Yonne.

The news was reported by the French "La Depeche."

The incident happened Saturday morning when the convict has been alone in the cell. The French authorities are still probing it.

In September 2011, the woman has been sentenced to 10 years jail time for attempted murder.

The Bulgarian press identified her as former pharmacist, Kina Nikova.

Nikova arrived in the home of her son in France in 2007. After relations with her daughter-in-law went sour, she decided to cause her huge suffering by murdering her 13-year-old-son and her own grandson.

In August 2009, when the parents were away working in a nearby Swiss town, Nikova stabbed the boy in the back numerous times inside the family home, after learning that the mother had purchased a plane ticket for her to send her back to Bulgaria. He survived by miracle.

The police found the elderly woman on a road near the house and she told them she has been waiting for a truck to throw herself under its wheels and die. She admitted she planned the murder for over a year.

During the Court proceedings Nikova testified that she did not love her grandson at all; did not admit guilt, and did not voice any regret. The defendant, however, threatened the mother with the wish to "have the same daughter-in-law as she did."

From her jail cell later, she apologized to the French people and thanked them for receiving food and shelter in the prison where she felt well.

Another local edition, "Yonne Republicain" informs Nikova killed herself shortly after being transferred back to prison from a psychiatric ward where she has been committed in the aftermath of an earlier suicide attempt.

The Bulgarian online news agency Dir.bg informs, citing her lawyer, Nikova has been an agent of the Bulgarian secret services and her Bulgarian boyfriend has been sentenced for the notorious theft of the coffin of actor Charlie Chaplin for ransom.

Her neighbors in Bulgaria are also quoted saying she served jail time in the homeland for illegal trade of medications and they considered her to be a very weird person.

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