A 42-year-old woman from Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, was arrested Tuesday for allegedly setting a man on fire and causing burns over his entire body, police said.

The man, who is in his 40s and was apparently the woman's boyfriend, remains unconscious in a hospital in critical condition.

Police officials said Yuko Ono, arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, told investigators that she poured ethanol over the man because she suspected he had had an affair and she wanted to "disinfect his dirty body." She reportedly said the man then tried to light a cigarette and caught fire.

According to the officials, on June 19 at around 5:30 p.m., Ono allegedly tried to light the man on fire inside a car parked on a street in Sakai's Nishi Ward. The man reportedly escaped and ran into a nearby electric appliance store. He was taken to a hospital, but his identity has not been confirmed, they said.

The 49-year-old owner of the store said there was no one in the shop when the man came in engulfed in flames. "The man tried to take off his clothes, shouting 'it's hot!' So I desperately tried to put out the fire by pouring a bucket of water on him," the owner said. "I'm relieved that the fire didn't spread throughout the store."

The police said residents had seen Ono with the man in a white car parked near the store. Then they smelled something burning and saw the car drive away. The police later found the car in a nearby parking lot with the driver's seat burned, but Ono disappeared after the incident. She turned herself in at the police station Monday along with a lawyer.