A man­hunt has been launched for a Moru­ga sus­pect who al­leged­ly threw pun­cheon rum on a neigh­bour and set him alight dur­ing a heat­ed ar­gu­ment yes­ter­day morn­ing. Ron­dell Chance, of 67 Bur­ton Trace, St Mary's Vil­lage, Moru­ga, re­ceived burns to the face, chest and up­per body in the in­ci­dent. He is list­ed in sta­ble con­di­tion at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al hos­pi­tal. Po­lice re­ports in­di­cate that around 3 am, Chance was drink­ing with friends at St Mary's Recre­ation Ground when an ar­gu­ment broke out with a fel­low vil­lager.

The vil­lager is said to have grabbed a bot­tle of pun­cheon rum in a fit of rage and poured it on Chance. He then set the man on fire and fled. Chance was tak­en to the Princes Town Health fa­cil­i­ty and then trans­ferred to hos­pi­tal where he re­mains ward­ed. The Moru­ga res­i­dent was said to be in an ine­bri­at­ed state yes­ter­day when of­fi­cers went to in­ter­view him. This pre­vent­ed the po­lice from tak­ing a state­ment. Po­lice said an ar­rest in im­mi­nent. Sgt Sam­bury of the Moru­ga Po­lice Post is head­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.