American citizens in the United Arab Emirates were targeted in attacks that saw the killing of a teacher and the attempted murder of a doctor.

On Monday, a 47-year-old American schoolteacher was stabbed to death in a bathroom of the Boutik Mall in the capital Abu Dhabi. A female suspect has been arrested, though she has not been publicly identified.

CCTV footage of the attack showed the suspect entering the mall in the early afternoon and speaking to a security guard. She was later seen fleeing the bathroom where the stabbing took place and taking an elevator back to the parking lot.

According to mall employees, the American teacher, who has been identified as Ibolya Ryan, dragged herself across the floor to get people’s attention. CCTV footage shows a blood trail from a toilet cubicle to the bathroom entrance.

The victim was taken to Abu Dhabi’s largest government hospital, the Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, but died from her injuries, police confirmed.

Ryan was a mother of three. Two of her children, 11-year-old twin boys, were being looked after by community police until their father, Ryan’s ex-husband, arrived in the UAE.

The CCTV footage also showed that an hour after the attack in the mall, the female suspect drove to a residential building to drop a home-made package hidden in a black suitcase outside the home of an American doctor of Egyptian descent.

A YouTube video with dramatic background music released by the police showed the suspect’s SUV pulling up in front of a building near the corniche with its license plate covered by a UAE flag. A day before the attacks, the UAE had celebrated 43 years of its union, and many cars were decorated with flags and pictures of the royal family.

The package was discovered by the doctor’s son. The doctor, whose name authorities have given only as MH, reported to the the building security a “strange thing” outside the door of his apartment. A security guard called the police, who defused the bomb after the building was evacuated.

The minister of the interior, Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, told local media that the suspect had targeted them based on their nationality.

The two attacks were made in upscale building clusters favoured by western expatriates. In a press conference broadcast on government-owned television, Sheikh Saif said the police were tipped off by members of the public with “important information”. He said the police had confirmed the identity of the suspect within 24 hours.

In the video, the suspect’s car was shown with blood stains on its steering wheel. The car also had ingredients allegedly used by the suspect to make the bomb.

The attacks come just a month after the US embassy in the UAE warned its citizens of potential attacks on Americans.

The embassy said at the time that “anonymous” threats had been made on a jihadi website encouraging attacks on teachers in American schools and other international schools in the Middle East.

The security warning asked citizens to remain vigilant, adding that they would review security measures at American schools in the country.

Ola Hassan is a UAE-based journalist