Incident in city centre 50 years after suicide of Jan Palach in protest at Soviet invasion

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A man seriously injured himself by setting himself on fire in a central Prague square as Czechs marked the 50th anniversary of a student’s self-immolation in protest at the Soviet invasion that crushed the Prague spring.

The unidentified man was taken to hospital after bystanders doused the flames that enveloped him in the same spot at the top of historic Wenceslas Square where Jan Palach burned himself to death in January 1969.

Palach’s suicide was a desperate act aimed at lifting the apathy hanging over the country in the wake of the Soviet intervention in August 1968 when Soviet tanks and troops occupied Prague, snuffing out the Prague spring process of democratic reforms to the communist system.

Previously unseen photos depict drama of 1968 Soviet invasion of Prague Read more

“According to initial information, a man born in 1964 poured an inflammable liquid on his body and set himself on fire,” Prague police tweeted. An investigation was under way.

Paramedics put the man, who suffered burns to more than 30% of his body, into an induced coma before taking him to hospital, the Prague emergency service said.

There was no immediate word on the man’s motives.

“I saw him from the distance, and rushed in as I realised: ‘My God, he really is on fire,’” said a young woman at the scene next to the National Museum.

“I started to put out the fire, tried to douse it. He had petrol on himself, you can still smell it,” she told reporters.