Man sets himself on fire in front of French employment agency

The offices of an employment agency in Nantes in western France were closed on Thursday, the day after an unemployed man set himself on fire in front of the building.

Reuters/Stephane Mahe

Many of the staff were too upset to work, following the suicide.

The man had sent messages to journalists warning he would self-immolate this week after being told he would have to repay some of the unemployment benefit he had received because he had declared too many hours worked.

He was also declared ineligible for further unemployment benefits.

Labour Minister Michel Sapin expressed his condolences over the "horrifying" act while insisting that the state employment agency had done everything possible. Staff there had tried to several times to arrange meetings with the man to work out solutions.

A 51-year-old jobless man had also burnt himself to death near Paris in August.

The number of unemployed has risen steadily in France for the past 20 months, and could soon reach the record high set in January 1997 of 3.2 million.

Meanwhile figures released on Thursday reveal that 28,100 jobs were lost in the last quarter of 2012 in the sales sector in France.