A family friend of a man who was set on fire in a Birmingham street says he has suffered “horrific injuries”.
The victim was attacked after returning home from prayers at a mosque on Monday night.
“He has serious injuries to the upper part of the body and also his hands and his face at the moment,” explained family spokesperson Shahbon Hussain.
“He’s not even able to open his eyes, he’s undergoing various skin grafts as well as a result of the horrific injuries.”
Mr Hussain said the victim was stable and “out of the red zone” but said it was going to be a “slow road to recovery”.
Video footage shows the victim being approached by a man on Shenstone Road in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham.
They spoke briefly, before he was sprayed with an unknown substance and his jacket set alight.
Mr Hussain told Sky News: “I received a call approximately seven o’clock from his son saying ‘my father is on fire’ so we immediately proceeded to the scene by which time St John Ambulance and West Midlands Police had got there and also the fire service, so he was taken to hospital with his injuries.”
West Midlands Police, who are leading the investigation, do not yet know the motive for the attack.
Counter Terrorism officers are also involved in the investigation due to the similarities with an incident in west London in February.
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Man set on fire walking home from mosque
Man set on fire ‘seriously injured’ say police
In that incident, an 82-year-old man was set on fire outside a mosque in Ealing. Police are trying to work out whether the two cases are linked.
The MP for Birmingham Ladywood, Shabana Mahmood, retraced the victim’s steps from the mosque on Dudley Road to the scene of the attack nearby on Shenstone Road on Wednesday.
Local MP Shabana Mahmood
Ms Mahmood said she had been shocked to receive a message from the son of the victim telling her his father had been “set on fire”.
She told Sky News that she had had a video call with the victim in hospital: “It was such a shock to see him bandaged up and he has got very serious injuries to his face.
Shenstone Road
“He was able to speak, he couldn’t really open his eyes so he couldn’t see me across our video call but he was able to speak and the first thing he said was ‘thank you’ to everybody who has pulled together, thank you to the community, the police and all of the other agencies.”
A man was arrested on Tuesday afternoon on suspicion of attempted murder and remains in police custody.
