A Tibetan activist died in New York City after setting himself on fire outside the United Nations headquarters on Thursday, according to police reports.

The New York City Police Department responded to an emergency call around 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time and transported the man to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Authorities identified him as Lobga Rangzen, an Uber driver who had been active in New York’s Tibetan community. He left behind papers inscribed with the phrase “China Out of Tibet.”

Rangzen appeared on a livestreamed video detailing his actions and stated that his self-immolation was not motivated by personal grievances but by his commitment to his homeland: “It is not because I have nothing to eat or nothing to wear, but because I am doing this for my country. For the Tibetan nation.”

Tenzin Dorjee, director of research and advocacy at Tibet Action Institute and a friend of Rangzen, described him as a central figure in New York’s Tibetan community who had been planning this act for some time. “For him, there was no other goal or value in life that was higher than national liberation,” Dorjee said.

The incident occurs amid heightened international concern over China’s new ethnic unity law, which took effect this week and grants Beijing the legal authority to take action against individuals outside its borders. Since 2009, more than 170 Tibetans have self-immolated in protest against Chinese policies, with these acts representing a response to systematic suppression of Tibetan language, culture, and freedoms. This marks the first known self-immolation by a Tibetan in the United States.