Man burns himself to death on Munich square
May 19, 2017
A 54-year-old man died early Friday morning after setting himself on fire in central Munich in a possibly politically motivated act.
The man doused himself in petrol before setting himself ablaze in front of the town hall in the Bavarian capital, police said.
Passersby found him lying down in flames in the central Marienplatz square and extinguished the flames. The man died about an hour later in a special clinic.
Slogans scrawled in marker on his nearby car indicated that his act might have been politically motivated.
The slogans included the sentences "War on German soil - never again" and "Amri is just the tip of the iceberg," a reference to Anis Amri, the man drove a truck into a crowded Berlin Christmas market in December, killing 12 people.
A police spokeswoman said there was no doubt that he had lit the fire himself, but did not specify any motives.
Self-immolation is often used as a of form of radical protest.
aw/rt (dpa, AFP, AP)