Police have arrested a 29-year-old nurse on suspicion of injecting elderly patients with insulin at a nursing home in Wierden in Overijssel.

The arrest took place on Monday but the woman had been suspended since March last year while the public prosecution carried out an investigation, care organisation ZorgAccent said.

Police suspect the woman injected three elderly patients with insulin for no medical reason. Their blood sugar values then plummeted to critical levels, the public prosecution department said.

The charges against her are attempted murder, attempted manslaughter and causing serious bodily harm.

Documents seen by local newspaper Tubantia, suggest “several clients” died but the department said the deaths were not related to injections with insulin.

Internal documentation stated that the clients who died did not have long to live, which meant that “some symptoms were not immediately noticed or explained.”

The nurse had worked at the home since 2018.