Man awaiting deportation sets fire to self at Rome airport
A 19-year-old Ivory Coast man who was apparently awaiting deportation set fire to himself at Rome’s Fiumicino airport on Thursday, AP and other news sources report.
The unidentified man showed officials a deportation notice then poured a plastic canister of fuel over himself and ran through the terminal toward a departure gate where he set himself on fire.
The incident happened in Terminal 3.
The flames were put out by a police officer and the man was taken to a local hospital where he was listed in serious condition. Smoke and flames caused a small part of the airport to be closed off for a short time, but no other significant delays or disruptions occured.
There was no information on how the man had accessed the fuel canister in a secure space of the airport. He had apparently arrived from Holland earlier in the week asking for political asylum. Sky News, whose producer Beth Fairweather was at the gate when the incident occured, reports that the man’s request for asylum was denied and that he was being sent home.
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