A 49-year-old jobless man set himself on fire in Paris on Friday, just two days after another man died following a similar incident to protest his exclusion from unemployment benefits, officials said. The man sprayed himself with inflammable liquid and then stepped on some clothes he had set alight in front of his home in the northern district of Saint-Ouen, the local municipal office said.
But passers-by called emergency services and the man was taken to hospital with first- and second-degree burns. A local official reported the man had linked his suicide attempt to the fact that he was taken off unemployment benefits but added that he also had "personal and family problems."
On Wednesday, an employed man of Algerian origin, Djamal Chaab, shocked France by setting himself aflame and burning to death in front of the government employment agency in the western city of Nantes. The 42-year-old had sent messages to journalists warning he would self-immolate after being declared ineligible for unemployment benefits. French President Francois Hollande expressed his sincere regrets after the suicide but exonerated the employment agency, saying they had been "exemplary." Labour Minister Michel Sapin also said the agency had "looked into possible solutions" to help the man. The number of unemployed has risen steadily in France for the past 20 months, and could soon reach the record high set in January 1997 of 3.2 million.
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