Gardaí in Tallaght have rescued a man from a river after he attempted to set himself alight. Gardaí had been trying to calm the man on the riverbank when he set himself on fire and fell backwards into the river just before midnight. The man is now being treated for burns and hypothermia in hospital.
The man had been involved in a minor traffic accident and fled the scene with a canister of petrol. On the bank of the river Dodder, he threatened to douse himself in petrol as a number of Gardaí tried to calm him down. The man then set himself alight and fell backwards into the water.
As he was being swept downstream by the fast-moving current, Gardaí radioed ahead to colleagues. They raced ahead and pulled the man from the water at the Firhouse Bridge in Knocklyon.
