Australia police ‘taser’ 95-year-old great-grandmother in nursing home

Australian police tasered a 95-year-old great-grandmother with dementia inside her nursing home, local media said Thursday, sending her to hospital with unspecified injuries.

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The woman, identified by media as Clare Nowland, was reportedly carrying a knife when staff at the Yallambee Lodge home in southern New South Wales called the police on Wednesday.

She “sustained injuries during an interaction with police at an aged care facility,” New South Wales state police said in a statement, which made no mention of a Taser being fired.

The 95-year-old was being monitored at Cooma District Hospital, police said.

“A critical incident team will now investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident,” the statement added.

“That investigation will be subject to independent review.”

Police declined to give further details.

Sydney’s Daily Telegraph newspaper said Nowland, a mother of eight, was found in her walking frame holding the knife when police were called to the home, where they tasered her.

Snowy Monaro Regional Council said it “can confirm an incident occurred” at the nursing home, which it runs.

“Council are supporting our staff, residents, and families during this difficult time,” it said in a statement.

The council declined further comment, citing the police investigation and “out of respect for the privacy of those involved.”

Australia’s national broadcaster ABC had reported on Nowland’s 80th birthday, which she celebrated by going skydiving in Canberra.

Relatives of the woman, who reportedly lived in the nursing home for five years, were at her bedside in hospital and had declined to comment, the ABC said.

Calls to a media manager for the hospital regional health department also went unanswered.

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