By Micheal Chukwuebuka, Reporting
AN active-duty airman was hospitalized in critical condition Sunday after authorities say he set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C.
According to statements from the city’s Metropolitan Police Department and Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department, the incident unfolded just before 1 p.m. outside the gates of the Israeli Embassy in northwest Washington.
“We arrived to find an apparent adult male who had been on fire,” the Fire and EMS Department said in its statement.
Members of the U.S. Secret Service Uniformed Division extinguished the flames before fire crews arrived, officials said.
Some hours after the incident, according to our source, ABC News, the U.S. Airforce confirmed the man involved was an active duty airman.
The man, whose name was withheld, was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries and is listed in critical condition.
The motive behind his actions, as of the time of filing this report, remained unclear.
Police detectives, the Secret Service Uniformed Division and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are investigating the incident.
The Israeli Embassy released a statement saying the man was “unknown” to embassy staff.
Also, no embassy workers were injured in the incident, and all were reported safe, embassy officials said.
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