The series of tragic European self-immolations continues, this time from Rome airport in front of hundreds of people, where moments ago Sky News reports, a 19-year-old man from the Ivory Coast, due for deportation, set himself on fire. From Sky [3]: " The 19-year-old man, from the Ivory Coast, doused himself in petrol and set himself on fire in front of dozens of travellers and workers at Fiumicino airport, 10 miles west of the Italian capital. Police said he arrived at the departures area of the airport's terminal three with a deportation order, and had been due to leave Italy. But as he spoke to police he suddenly pulled out a plastic bottle of petrol, tipped it over himself and ran off through the terminal. Officers gave chase, but he then used a lighter to ignite the fuel in front of stunned passengers.... A spokesman for the Italian Refugee Council confirmed that the man had arrived in Italy from Holland earlier this week and had tried to claim asylum but had been denied and was ordered out of the country. He had been due to board a flight to Amsterdam when he set fire to himself. The spokesman added: "One can only imagine the desperation and frustration he must have faced to carry out such an act." He had been due to board a flight to Amsterdam when he set fire to himself. The spokesman added: "One can only imagine the desperation and frustration he must have faced to carry out such an act."
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"People were screaming because no one knew what had happened and I think the first suggestion was that it might have been a terror attack."
Fellow traveller Silvana Urso said: "There was a lot of shouting and police running after someone, that was all I saw.
"There was a smell of smoke and then police were telling us to evacuate the terminal because there had been an incident.
"It was only when I was outside that I heard a man had set himself on fire."
One policeman grabbed a fire extinguisher to douse the flames and was slightly injured.
Paramedics wrapped the man in specialist blankets before taking him away in an ambulance.
A spokesman at the Sant'Eugenio hospital where he was being treated said he was in a "serious condition with extensive burns".
Sadly, since this is hardly the last episode of people self-immolating out of desperation in Europe (and elsewhere), perhaps it is about time the centralized government of the world finally banned lighter fluid. And matches. And lighters.