Man sets himself on fire outside Breivik court building (VIDEO)

A man has set himself on fire in Oslo outside a court hearing the case of notorious gunman Anders Breivik. The badly injured man was taken away in ambulance after the flame was extinguished by police.

­The incident happened near the security examination point as a man doused himself with some flammable liquid from a coke bottle and tried to enter the Oslo District Courthouse building with the flames covering his head and torso.

At the doors of the courthouse the man made a u-turn and started running around knocking down security fences and shouting “shoot me, shoot me!”

The man then fell on the ground screaming in pain as police stripped him of his burning sweater and hat. The officers poured several bottles of water on him to extinguish the flames.

The man is now in Ulleval University Hospital with serious injuries to his chest and stomach. Witness reports suggest he could also have suffered severe burns to his head as he was aflame all the way from the top of his head down to the waist.

Latest reports suggest the individual had nothing to do with Breivik’s case and initially came to the same court building to discuss social support issues with his lawyer.

After he had been told the lawyer was not in the building, the 49-year-old foreigner left his legal papers at the front desk with the words “just in case something serious happens to me” and walked out, Norwegian News Agency (NTB) reports. The papers reportedly contained a rejection of an application for social assistance.

Police confirmed the man had no links to the trial of right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik. The individual was a Norwegian citizen of foreign origin, said police spokesman Kjell Jan Kverme. He did not disclose the man’s identity.

The criminal trial of Anders Breivik began on 16 April 2012 in Oslo Courthouse under the jurisdiction of Oslo District Court. The trial is scheduled to run until the end of June.

Breivik was behind a killing spree that claimed 69 lives at Utoya youth camp last July. He also detonated a bomb near the government headquarters in Oslo, killing eight people. He has admitted to the killings, showing no remorse and claiming he carried out the attacks in self-defense, in a bid to protect Norway from multiculturalism and “Muslim invasion.”

The court is set to determine whether Breivik is sane enough to face prison sentence of up to 21 years. If declared insane, he would be kept in a psychiatric clinic for as long as the doctors consider him ill.

Medical personnel evacuate the man who set himself on fire outside the courthouse where Anders Breivik is on trial (Reuters/Berit Roald/NTB Scanpix)

Medical personnel evacuate the man who set himself on fire outside the courthouse where Anders Breivik is on trial (Reuters/Berit Roald/NTB Scanpix)