LONDON -- A man who set himself on fire outside the House of Commons to protest the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina has died in a hospital, Scotland Yard said Friday.
Graham Bamford, 48, died in the burn unit of London's Queen Mary Hospital at 11 p.m. Thursday, hours after he poured a can of gasoline over himself in Parliament Square and lit the fuel.
Bamford, who was married with one child, left a handwritten note about the atrocities in Bosnia-Herzegovina. His protest came just as lawmakers began a debate on whether to take military action to end the war in former Yugoslavia.
The Sun newspaper said the man staggered a few yards before collapsing, just yards from horrified passers-by.
Two police on duty at the House of Commons told the newspaper the man cried out in agony as tourists and police used their coats to help put out the flames.
'We grabbed coats off tourists and passers-by and tried to beat out the flames. Then a cabbie dashed over with a fire extinguisher,' police Constable Thomas Straw said.
Another police officer directing traffic nearby said he helped put out the fire with an extinguisher from his security box.
'The man was in a terrible state and smelled of petrol,' PC David Davies was quoted as saying.
