Fourth Self-Immolation in Bulgaria in Just over a Month

A young woman set herself on fire in the central Bulgarian town of Stara Zagora on Monday, the fourth self-immolation in the country in just over a month, hospital sources said.

The 32-year-old woman was hospitalized with 92-percent burns, and local emergency hospital chief Chavdar Popov described her chances of survival as "minimal."

Doctors found a fuel can and the woman's purse at the crossroad where she set herself afire, Popov added.

Her motives were unclear.

The severely injured woman was later transported to the burns clinic of the university hospital in the nearby city of Plovdiv, where doctors put her in a medically induced coma.

Neighbors told the public BNR radio station that the woman was living with her retired parents and was not very communicative. She had a job and did not have financial problems. 

This is the fourth self-immolation in Bulgaria in recent weeks, with two previous women and a man having set themselves ablaze since November.

The spate is reminiscent of a string of self-immolations in the EU's poorest country last year, when eight people died after setting themselves on fire on the margins of massive rallies against poverty and corruption.

Seven years after joining the EU, a quarter of Bulgaria's population lives below the poverty line.