PRAGUE (AFP) – A Czech man set himself on fire on Friday (Jan 18) in central Prague where the student activist Jan Palach self-immolated 50 years ago to protest the Soviet-led occupation of the then Czechoslovakia.

The man was put into an artificial coma and hospitalised with burns to his head and hands after setting himself alight at Wenceslas Square, officials said.

“The man born in 1964 set himself on fire around 3pm using a flammable substance,” Prague police said on Twitter, adding that passersby put out the flames.

“Rescuers put the patient with burns covering 30 per cent of his body in an artificial coma,” Prague emergency services spokeswoman Jana Postova added on Twitter.

The Czech Republic marked 50 years since Palach’s self-immolation earlier this week with official ceremonies and a torch-lit march through Prague.

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