French teenager sets himself on fire at Marseille school

French teenager sets himself on fire at Marseille school

2011-01-19 00:58:54 GMT+7 (ICT)

PARIS (BNO NEWS) -- A French teenager set himself on fire at his school in southeastern France on Tuesday, reports said, but few details were immediately available.

The incident happened at the toilets of a private school in Marseille, the second most populous city in France, according to the BBC which said the 16-year-old boy had doused himself in a flammable liquid before setting himself alight.

It was not immediately clear what prompted the boy to set himself on fire, resulting in severe burns over 70 percent of his body. He was rushed to a local hospital and remains in a serious condition.

Also on Tuesday, a 25-year-old man was killed in the Egyptian port city of Alexandria after failing to find a job as a lawyer. It echoed a similar action on Monday when a 49-year-old man put himself on fire near the Egyptian parliament in downtown Cairo.

The act in Alexandria appeared to be similar to a protest earlier this month in Tunisia, leading to last week's rebellion that led to Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's resignation. There, Mohsen Bouterfif set himself on fire after a meeting with the mayor of Boukhadra in Tebessa who was unable to offer Bouterfif a job and a house.

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