AUSTIN Texas (Reuters) - Police in a Dallas suburb shot a suspected burglar after he poured a flammable material on his clothing and set himself on fire on Wednesday outside a chicken wing restaurant, a city official said.

Three officers also suffered severe burns including one who had to be airlifted to a hospital for emergency care, said Corky Brown, a spokesman for Cedar Hill, the suburb southwest of Dallas where the incident took place.

There were no reports immediately available on the condition of the suspect or the officers, Brown said.

The officers were pursuing the man, a suspect in an apartment robbery, and confronted him outside the restaurant in the shopping center, Brown said.

The suspect, who was brandishing a bottle of what appeared to be gasoline, entered the restaurant and then quickly exited engulfed in flames, witness Robert Gonzales told Dallas broadcaster WFAA.

"He looked like a human torch. He had no facial features," Gonzales said.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Eric Walsh)