Police are seeking person who set a man on fire near Times Square

A New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer at a subway station in New York, U.S., on Wednesday, March 22, 2023. (Stephanie Keith/Bloomberg)

NEW YORK — Police in New York City are searching for a person they say set a man on fire near Times Square shortly before 4 a.m. Sunday morning near West 41st Street and 7th Avenue.

Officers spotted the 45-year-old victim and extinguished the flames. He was taken to a nearby hospital in stable condition, police said.

Law enforcement officials say they believe the victim, who they have not named, knows the man who set him on fire. They declined to comment further, saying the case remains under investigation.

Video and images from the scene show the victim walking along the sidewalk shirtless and accompanied by firefighters after the flames were put out. Footage of the man being treated in an ambulance showed burns to his face, neck, chest and arms.

In December, Debrina Kawam, 57, of New Jersey, died after being set on fire in a New York subway train. Sebastian Zapeta, 33, has pleaded not guilty to murder and arson charges in the Dec. 22 killing.

Prosecutors say Zapeta set fire to Kawam while she was sleeping aboard a train stopped at a station in Brooklyn’s Coney Island, then fanned the flames with a shirt and watched her burn from a subway station bench.