A man has died after setting himself on fire on the National Mall in Washington. Police responded to an emergency call about a fire shortly before 4.30pm on the Mall. The man was airlifted to hospital after bystanders used the shirts off their backs to tamp down the flames, police and witnesses said.
The man, who was not identified, was conscious when he was taken to Washington Hospital Centre but he later died from his injuries.
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A police spokesman said the man was so badly burned that he would need to be identified through DNA and dental records.
The apparent self-immolation in the heart of Washington's tourist area rattled the city a day after a car chase that began at the White House ended in a fatal shooting outside the US Capitol. Nicole Didyk, an environmental engineer for the Federal Aviation Administration, said she was out for a run when she saw a man with small flames on him.
She said she watched in shock as several men rushed towards him, searching as they ran for water or blankets. "Nobody had anything, so they just ended up pulling off their shirts and tamping him down with them. They got him to sit down and roll on the ground to put [himself] out.
"The men that put him out told me that while they were patting him he was telling them, 'Thank you, thank you.'"
She said one of the bystanders who rushed to the man's aid told her he had seen him carry a red petrol can from the direction of the Capitol.
"The guy told me that he was standing in the middle of the Mall facing the Capitol, and he poured the can over his head and then lit a match," Didyk said.
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