MOSCOW (Reuters) - Locked in a cage in a Moscow courtroom, Gulchekhra Bobokulova casually waves to the cameras, just a day after she was filmed holding the severed head of a child outside of a metro stop.

The 38-year-old mother of three was tackled to the ground by police.

They accuse Bobokulova, who is from Uzbekistan, of beheading the child. They say she'd been working as a nanny for a Moscow family and claims to have committed the crime in the name of Allah, before setting fire to the family flat and fleeing.

The incident has shocked the residents of Moscow, some of whom fear Bobokulova might not be properly punished.

"Now they say she has schizophrenia, and after being in jail five years she will return to her native village."

Well-wishers are laying flowers and other mementos for the child outside the metro stop where the incident took place, while inside the court, officials try to establish exactly what happened.