Asylum seeker torches himself in suicide bid

AN asylum seeker set himself ablaze in an apparent suicide attempt yesterday outside the Malaysian headquarters of the UN refugee agency in Kuala Lumpur, officials said.

The man, an Iranian, was rushed to hospital with critical burns to most of his body.

The man went to the entrance of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ office in Kuala Lumpur shortly before lunchtime, doused himself with petrol and lit his clothes with a cigarette lighter, said UNHCR official Jennifer Ashton.