A Shaoyang city official surnamed Luo says four other people were injured in the attack Monday morning against the city water company's Communist Party leaders.
The Hunan provincial news website says the arsonist is a retired staffer named Shi Yanfei, and that she unsuccessfully tried to kill herself by jumping off the building after carrying out the attack.
Shi was unhappy that the company had not provided a job for one of her two children though it had hired her other child. Luo says the woman is being treated in hospital.
