Second French jobless man sets himself on fire after losing unemployment benefits
A jobless man has set himself on fire in Paris after losing unemployment benefits, two days after another man died in a similar incident in the country's west.
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Local police in the northern Parisian district of Saint-Ouen say the 49-year old sprayed himself with inflammable liquid before stepping onto clothes he had set alight.
Passers-by called emergency services. He has been taken to hospital with first- and second-degree burns.
A local official says the man linked his suicide attempt to the fact that he was taken off unemployment benefits, but added the man also suffered “personal and family problems”.
On Wednesday, a 42-year old unemployed man of Algerian origin, Djamal Chaab, set himself alight and died in front of the government employment agency in the western city of Nantes.
The number of unemployed people has risen steadily in France over the past 20 months, with more than three million people out of work.
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