A member of Shanghai-based girl group SNH48 is being treated for severe burns after accidentally setting herself on fire at a cafe on Tuesday evening, her management company said on Weibo yesterday.
Tang Anqi, 24, is in intensive care at the Changhai Hospital of Shanghai, the company said.
Police from Baoshan District said Tang set herself on fire accidentally with a lighter at 7:45pm during a dispute with a female friend in the cafe.
According to news website thepaper.cn, the fire spread quickly because the woman was wearing pantyhose.
She suffered burns to 80 percent of her body, the report said, without citing a source.
According to a picture posted by a witness online, Tang caught fire as she was rushing to the staircase.
The fire was put out by cafe staff and Tang was sent to hospital.
The cafe's manager, surnamed Wen, told Shanghai Daily that Tang "didn't seem to be in a good mood."
"She seemed to be fiddling with the lighter when we were serving the food," she said.
"But we don't know exactly what happened as we were on the first floor of the cafe, and she and her friend were on the second floor" at the time of the incident, she said.
Wen said that the two women were not smoking and that none of the food they ordered "required the use of a lighter."
The seat in which Tang was sitting is not covered by the cafe's surveillance cameras, thepaper.cn reported.
The band's management company said she is in need of large amount of blood and is still in danger, and unable to speak.
It also expressed gratitude to all the people who had gone to the hospital to donate blood.
Changhai Hospital of Shanghai declined to comment on the case, but police said they are investigating the incident.
