Other cases of self-immolation have taken place in the country since, often in marginalised interior regions [Getty/archive photo]
Clashes erupted between locals and the police in Tunisia’s eastern city of Sousse after a man set himself on fire following a dispute with police officers, a judicial source told local media on Friday.
Videos circulated on social media late Thursday showed a group of people hurling rocks and smoke bombs – usually used in stadiums – at a police station in the coastal city.
The clashes came hours after an unnamed 26-year-old set himself on fire at the station, Wissem Cherif, spokesman of a Sousse court, told Tunisian radio Jawhara FM.
The man went to the police station to recover money that had been “seized as part of a judicial warrant issued against him” on suspicion of drug use, he said.
He then left the police station and came back half an hour later to set himself on fire, according to Cherif.
The man was transferred to a local hospital and was “in a critical state”, according to media reports.
Cherif did not say whether the clashes left any casualties or if arrests had been made.
The incident recalled the self-immolation on December 17, 2010, of 26-year-old street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi – also in protest against police mistreatment – in the central town of Sidi Bouzid.
It had sparked demonstrations across Tunisia, which ousted less than a month later ousted longtime president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and swept through the region in what became known as the Arab Spring.
Other cases of self-immolation have taken place in the country since, often in marginalised interior regions.
While the nation of 12 million emerged from the Arab Spring as the only democracy, it has for years grappled with eroding rights under President Kais Saied, and a stagnating economy.
