Three people in Algeria attempted suicide by fire Wednesday, bringing the total number of such actions to eight in a week, in a replica of protests that ousted the president of neighbouring Tunisia. Afif Hadri, a 37-year-old father of six, poured petrol over himself in the main market of El Oued in the east of the country, near the Tunisian border, but people around him stopped him setting himself alight, local journalists said.
Hadri, a small-time food seller on the market, acted after an argument with a policeman who said he was trading illegally. Earlier a woman in her fifties soaked herself with an inflammable product and tried to set herself on fire when a local official convinced her to stop, El Watan daily said, adding that she wounded only her hand as a result.