Rush-hour drivers watched in horror as a man turned himself into a human fireball in front of them, it emerged today.

The man, in his 40s, was a  ‘walking fireball’ and ‘head-to-toe’ in flames after dousing himself in petrol.

Last night he was reportedly fighting for his life in hospital after police and fire crews put out the flames at the scene on Shepherd’s Bush Green, west London.

Horror scene: Shepherds Bush Green where the man was ‘covered in flames from head-to-toe

Pablo Jenkins, 29, was driving his daughter to nursery with his girlfriend when he saw the man ablaze, stumbling around on the green.

He said: ”We couldn’t believe it at first. We stopped at a red light and saw him thrashing around.

‘I thought it may have been a stunt man but then he dropped to the ground and was still. It looked like he had died but then he got back up.

‘He was literally covered in flames from head-to-toe. There was a fire ball to the side of him as well. You couldn’t make out any of his features.

‘I had the window open but there was utter silence, He wasn’t screaming.’

He alerted the emergency services who rushed to the scene last Thursday morning at 8am.