Man Mysteriously Bursts Into Flames At Swedish Train Station

Sweden is the land of incredible thrillers The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Series, the birthplace of famously well-endowed beautiful blonde women, and…fjords? It’s also the land of the midnight sun, and some serious Seasonal Effective Disorder. Perhaps that’s why, over the weekend, a Swedish man suddenly caught fire standing in front of a shop at the train station in Gothenburg, Sweden. The man, as yet unidentified, mysteriously caught fire while bystanders watched.

Around 10:30 at night a man was standing outside a record store in the Central Train Station in Gothenburg, Sweden, when he suddenly caught fire. A tram driver told The Local, “He just stood there burning outside the shop. After a while he started screaming. There were a few people about but they just watched him.” Definitely. “I ran up to him,” continued the Tram driver, “tore my coat off and managed to put the fire out together with another guy.” Emergency responders showed up almost immediately, taking the seriously injured man to the hospital and sedating him. Police officer Assa Andersson reported to The Local that the man would likely be sedated for several weeks, and was not in a condition to be questioned about the event. “All we know is that it's a man,” Andersson reported, “We have no knowledge of his identity, nor of his age or any motive or even the circumstances of the incident.” The tram driver that witnessed the event and sprang to the mysterious man’s aid said, that the man had told him he was 42 years old before he became too badly burned to speak.

This mysterious case comes only two months after another one in Ireland. Michael Faherty, 76, mysteriously was burned to death in his home in Galway, Ireland, on Sept. 23^rd. Officially, this is the first case of spontaneous combustion in Ireland, which is public officials’ response to a burning death in which no external ignition source can be found. Typically the body is burnt internally and there’s little or no damage to the surrounding environment. Could the mysterious Swedish burning man be one of the first eye-witness accounts of spontaneous human combustion, and lived? The possibility seems slim, particularly since the man seemed to be burning quite visibly from the outside, which contradicts previous spontaneous combustion cases. In addition, internal burning would, even if rescuers were able to put out the external flames, almost assure death. Spontaneous combustion? A terrifying suicide attempt? Maybe. Another intense Swedish thriller in the making? Definitely.