Man ablaze hugs politician on India TV

A television debate show in northern India ended in horror after a spectator set himself ablaze and embraced a local politician, leaving both men fighting for their lives, police said Tuesday. The election show on India's state-owned national TV channel Doordarshan was being pre-recorded in a park on Monday in Sultanpur, a town about 160 kilometres from the city of Lucknow. A man, named by police as Durgesh Kumar Singh, emerged from a crowd of about 150 onlookers, doused himself in petrol and then grabbed the local leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party, Kamruzzama Fauji. Singh sustained burns on 95 percent of his body which doctors say are likely to be fatal, while Fauji was in critical condition with 75 percent burns, police said, according to AFP.