A 35-year-old man in Belarus set himself on fire outside the government headquarters in Minsk earlier today and was hospitalised after passers-by and police put out the flames with a fire extinguisher, police said.
The man could be seen on fire on a sprawling, largely empty square in the centre of Minsk near a statue of Lenin in video footage shared online.
Several people could be seen rushing towards him to try to put the flames out.
The motives for the man's act were not immediately clear and investigators were working to establish the background, the Belarusian Investigative Committee said in a statement.
It said the man had doused himself with a liquid before setting himself alight.
Belarus has been rocked by rolling protests since a presidential election last summer which the opposition says was rigged in favour of the official winner and incumbent Alexander Lukashenko. He denies the vote-rigging allegations.
This comes after the country was stripped of the right to co-host this year's ice hockey world championship due to safety concerns.
Celebrations
Belarusian athletes and opposition supporters welcomed the decision to remove Belarus as host of the competition, as they say it would have given the country's embattled president an international boost.
The Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundation (BSSF), with the support of the Belarusian diaspora and opposition activists, sent a flurry of letters to the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) and to tournament sponsors and national federations describing the crackdown on anti-government protesters last year.
The group lobbied for Minsk to be stripped of its right to co-host with neighbouring Latvia hockey's biggest annual tournament.
"Holding such a major tournament would have legitimised Lukashenko's rule," foundation head and Olympic swimmer Aliaksandra Herasimenia told Reuters on Tuesday.
"I think it's a small step that helps shrink Lukashenko's sphere of influence," the three-time Olympic medallist said.
The IIHF on Monday said it was moving the tournament, which runs from May 21st to June 6th, due to safety concerns over political unrest and the Covid-19 pandemic.
It came under additional pressure in the last few days when tournament sponsors Skoda Auto and Liqui Moly threatened to withdraw if the event were to be held in Minsk, which also hosted the 2014 event.
Lukashenko is an avid hockey fan. He regularly plays with senior Belarus officials and occasionally with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Asked whether Lukashenko might feel hurt seeing his country stripped of the tournament, Herasimenia said: "I would like to ask if it hurt when thousands of people were beaten up, put in jail for no reason, when handicapped people, children and old people were repressed. That did not hurt him."
The Belarusian government said it regretted the IIHF's "unfounded decision."
The head of the Belarusian Ice Hockey Federation said BSSF members had betrayed their country.
"Today you are celebrating a victory, stripping the Belarusian people of a real celebration," Dmitry Baskov said in a statement. "After that you cannot call yourselves Belarusians! You are traitors!"
