A 56-year-old Czech man died this morning after setting himself on fire at Wenceslas Square in the center of Prague, iDnes.cz news portal reported.

The man, whose identity wasn't released, was on leave from a psychiatric hospital in Prague, iDnes cited police spokesman Tomas Hulan as saying. He set himself on fire shortly before midnight and died later in a hospital.

In the Czech Republic, self-immolations bring back memories of resistance to the communist regime of the time. In 1969, two students, Jan Palach and Jan Zajic, died after setting themselves ablaze at the same square to protest the apathy that followed the 1968 Soviet-led invasion to former Czechoslovakia.