CAIRO, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- A restaurateur set himself on fire in Egypt Monday in a form of protest also chosen recently by men in Mauritania, Algeria and Tunisia, officials said.
The Egyptian newspaper al-Masry al-Youm reported a witness said the Egyptian man was shouting chants against the country's secret service as he doused himself with gasoline and set himself ablaze on a street in front of Parliament.
"Security service, my rights are lost in this country," he was heard saying.
The witness told the newspaper the man was engulfed in flames, which guards put out with extinguishers.
The man, identified as Abdou Abdel Moneim Gaafar, 49, owner of a restaurant in Qantara, was being treated at a hospital. His condition wasn't known.
The New York Times said the Mauritania News Agency had reported a man in his 40s, identified as Ya'coub Ould Dahoud, resorted to self-immolation Monday in a car in front of that country's Parliament. Four men in Algeria have set fire to themselves in the past week, the Times said.
The fiery protests follow the Dec. 17 self-immolation of a Tunisian youth that triggered widespread protests that led to the resignation of President Zine el-Abedine Ben Ali.
