NEW YORK: Unknown person (s) set a 45-year-old man on fire at Times Square on Sunday morning and escaped, rescue and police authorities said.
Police said they have launched an investigation to trace the attacker and were gathering details from the affected person if he had enmity with anyone, or if he knew the culprit.
Video circulating on social media showed the injured in extreme pain and burnt and being bundled into an ambulance after putting out the flames. Before being taken to a medical center, the injured person was seen standing on the roadside with his shirt burnt out and a blue blanket covering him.
The New York Police said that they responded to reports of a man on fire at W. 41st and Seventh Ave. just before 4am. Firefighters reached the spot and put out the flames. They told local media that unknown persons threw accelerant on the victim at the corner of 41st and Broadway and lit him on fire.
“The attacker used a small Patron tequila bottle to douse the victim in some kind of accelerant, according to crime scene investigators.”
The victim then ran 100 feet west while on fire before someone jumped out of a car and doused him with a powder fire extinguisher, the marshals added.
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