Refugee From Myanmar Attempts Self-Immolation in Australian Bank, Injures 27

A refugee from Myanmar set himself alight inside a Commonwealth Bank in Melbourne, Australia, injuring at least 27 people, six of them with serious burns, on Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — According to the Daily Mail Australia, citing witnesses, ahead of the incident on Friday the 21-year-old failed to withdraw the money from the bank's ATM as he had no funds available.

According to other media reports, the man was living in Australia on his own, as he arrived there as an unaccompanied minor back in 2013. The man was reportedly struggling financially and mentally.

An electronic cash machine is burned at a branch of the Commonwealth Bank after a fire injured customers in Melbourne, Australia November 18, 2016

© REUTERS / AAP/Julian Smith

The refugee, who received serious injuries, is believed to be part of the Rohingya ethnic community, the Muslim group from predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, a Southeast Asian nation known formerly in the West as Burma. The Myanmar government denies citizenship to the Rohingya, treating them as undocumented immigrants from Bangladesh. Numerous Rohingya people have fled from Myanmar to neighboring regional states to escape persecution.