An Englishman, who had lost custody of his daughter, attempted to burn himself alive in front of the main police station, near the port road. Only the swift intervention of two police officers prevented him from carrying out the act.
According to the EFE news agency, the two officers put their own lives at considerable risk as the man had already doused himself with petrol from a container and held a lit cigarette lighter in his hand.
The incident occurred on a Friday during last month. Two policemen were returning to the police station after having carried out a foot patrol when they came across a man, who was attempting to hide something under his coat – it was a petrol container. They decided to approach without alarming the man, who had already begun to empty the contents over himself.
At this point they jumped him and during the struggle he managed to remove a cigarette lighter from his pocket and ignite it – by this time the policemen were also covered in petrol. Fortunately, they managed to get the lighter off him before he turned the three of them into human torches.
Consequently, the man was taken to Santa Ana Hospital and kept in the psychiatric ward.
According to the news source the man explained that he had been suffering from severe depression ever since the custody of his daughter was revoked, two weeks previously. No details of the person’s identity were given, nor would we publish them here, if they had been, given the circumstances.