By RIA Novosti
Tel Aviv : An elderly resident of an Israeli northern village of Jisr az-Zarka who claims she was born 120 years ago could become the world’s oldest living person, local media said Tuesday.
The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, applied to the Interior Ministry in the Haifa District on Monday for a renewal of her identity card.
The officials were ‘stunned’ when the woman wrote in her application form that she was born in 1888, Israel’s Ynetnews tabloid said.
The centenarian arrived at the office with her great-great granddaughter, who served as her translator, “but was perfectly capable of walking by herself… her hearing is slightly impaired, but other than that she seemed fine,” said head of the Hadera branch Moshe Hazut.
However, ministry officials were rather skeptical about the applicant’s statement. “The woman was born during the Ottoman period, a time when the population registry was very inaccurate. It is quite possible that she is younger than reported, or even older,” Hazut said.
The world’s oldest person, according to the Guinness Book of Records, is currently Edna Parker from the U.S. who is 114 years old. She claimed the title when Yone Minagawa, of Japan, died aged 114 in January 2007.
Another centenarian who also claims to be world’s oldest living person, Varvara Semennikova, from Russia’s Far East, says she is 117 years old. However, her age has not been verified by the Guinness Book of Records.
The longest unambiguously documented lifespan is that of Jeanne Calment, from France, who died in 1997 at the age of 122.