A fire in his apartment severely burned a Georgia Tech graduate student Tuesday afternoon, and police said Wednesday they found a Molotov cocktail.
They said the apartment in the 200 block of 10th Street also held several plastic bottles full of gasoline and kerosene.
Saamer Akhshabi remained in Grady Memorial Hospital with third-degree burns over 90 percent of his body.
The cause of the fire had not been determined. “At this time, we are assisting in furthering the investigation to determine how the male received the injuries and how the fire started,” Officer John Chafee with Atlanta police said.
Police reported the incident to U.S. Homeland Security, and a police SWAT team and agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI were called in.
A spokesman for Georgia Tech said the institute is working with law enforcement officials.
“Our primary concern is to provide appropriate assistance to the victim and for his family as well as his classmates,” Matt Nagel, Tech spokesman, said in an emailed statement Tuesday night. “We continue to cooperate with the investigation.”
Akhshabi is studying in the College of Computing at Tech, where he has attended since 2009, according to his web page. Before moving to Atlanta, Akhshabi completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Tehran in Iran.
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