Police were called to the Supreme Court Plaza at around 6:30pm on Friday. Video from the scene shows a man screaming in agony after officers extinguished the flames. An air ambulance arrived shortly afterwards, but Mr Bruce died in hospital the following day.

There are suggestions that he long planned to set himself on fire, having edited a post from October 2020.

Then, Mr Bruce shared a link to a free educational course about climate change. A year ago, on April 20, 2021, he added a comment to that post: “4-1-1,” an apparent reference to the directory-assistance telephone number people used to call for information.

Then, in October 2021, he added a fire emoji to that comment, according to a publicly visible edit history. Earlier this month, on April 2, Bruce added the date that he would set himself on fire. The final message read: “4-1-1 with a fire emoji next to it and the date 4/22/2022.”