A mother-of-three slit her own throat in the middle of a supermarket after suffering a breakdown following the death of her daughter who she was convinced was the victim of black magic, an inquest has heard.
Sobia Yousef, 36, died after grabbing a knife from the shelf of her local Asda store in Shipley, West Yorkshire, before plunging it into her throat in front of horrified shoppers.
Bradford Coroner's Court was told that on the morning of her death Mrs Yousef sent her two surviving children to school before leaving the house for the shop.
She arrived at Asda at around 8.35am before heading to the aisle, taking the knife and killing herself, the inquest was told.
The mother had been suffering from severe depression and psychotic episodes after her daughter Meweesh Mahmood was taken to hospital with severe complications resulting from a congenital heart defect in July 2013.
The inquest was told that Mrs Mahmood believed that black magic had been used on the little girl and had alarmed staff at Leeds General Infirmary by claiming she could see cats in the room and had calling out to God to save her daughter.
By the end of July Mrs Yousef had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act after she was diagnosed with severe depression with psychotic elements.
In an emotional statement to the court Mrs Yousef's brother Imitaz Ali said he his sister had made a number of strange and irrational decisions during the course of her illness.
He said: 'My sister was doing things that were very unusual. She took all her jewellery and put it in a handkerchief, tied it together and threw it into a mosque letterbox.
'At the time the mosque was closed and so her aunties had to go find the man with the key to get it back.
'She also withdrew £2,000 from the bank, went to Western Union and sent it to Pakistan saying it was for 'the poor people'.
'Sobia would stand out in the rain for hours and we were worried that she might hurt herself accidentally.'
Mr Ali said that after Meweesh's death Mrs Yousef took all her daughter's clothes out of the wardrobe, piled them on the cooker and turned all the hobs on.
Her husband Tariq Mahmood, who was sleeping upstairs at the time, smelt the smoke and came downstairs to find them on fire, before managing to fling the burning clothes out into the garden.
Mr Ali said while her daughter was still in hospital Mrs Yousef cut all the electric wires to the boiler in her home because Meweesh had told her that she was too hot in her hospital bed.
Mr Ali described his battle with health workers to get Mrs Yousef the support she needed.
'I spoke to doctors and support workers at Lynfield Mount Hospital who said it wasn't their problem because she had been discharged.
'One support worker who took her to the park said she was improving, but she was not improving, she was getting worse.
'Everybody who lived in the street knew she was poorly. She would stand out on the street corner for hours on end.'
During her illness, the inquest heard Mrs Yousef became distant from the family and would refuse to speak to them or see them.
The inquest continues.
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