On Sunday evening, at around 11.30 pm, the emergency services were called to deal with a man threatening to take his own life by blowing up his block of flats.
On arrival, the police immediately turned off the mains gas supply and then tried to reason with the man.
Seeing smoke billowing from the flat, the police forced the door open, only to find themselves face to face with a young man engulfed in flames who lunged at them, burning one of them on the hand and another on the hair.
The man was eventually stopped in the stairwell by other police officers before being taken into the care of the Paris Fire Brigade.
With burns over his entire body, the man was taken to Saint-Louis Hospital, whilst the two officers who had suffered burns (one to his hand and the other to his hair) were taken to Beaujon Hospital.
According to initial reports, the man’s psychiatric condition was known.