The man set himself on fire, echoingthe Tunisian who set himself alight protesting unemployment and sparking mass protests that toppled Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

An Egyptian man torched himself, echoing the Tunisian who set himself alight protesting unemployment and sparking mass protests that toppled Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

The man set himself on fire outside parliament in Cairo on Monday, a parliament source said but without identifying him and without further details about his condition.

The man "stood outside the People's Assembly, poured fuel on himself and set himself on fire," the source said on condition of anonymity.
"A policeman who was close by managed to extinguish the fire and the man was quickly taken away by ambulance," the source added.

Tunisia has been hit by similar attempted suicide since December 17, when 26-year-old university graduate Mohamed Bouaziz torched himself after he was prevented by police from selling fruit and vegetables to make a living.
Bouaziz died in hospital after about two weeks of the incident. His suicide attempt sparked mass protest in Tunisia for weeks, forcing Ben Ali, who had been Tunisia’s president since 1987, to fled the country to Saudi Arabia on Friday.

Egyptians have often voiced similar grievances to Tunisians. They have long complained of economic hardships and Cairo has regularly come under criticism for failing to lift an emergency law in place for three decades.