A man in Cyprus has given new meaning to the concept of burning calories after going viral for storming into a gym and setting it on fire.


In a video of the incident, which took place in Larnaca, we see footage of an instructor leading a weightlifting class before a man starts unscrewing a bottle and pouring its contents on the platform the instructor is standing on. He then throws the bottle down and pulls out a match before setting the platform on fire. Fortunately, both the instructor and class participants were able to leave the room in time and weren’t injured, but it’s still an incredibly weird move.



According to a local news outlet, the man has a criminal history — he assaulted a woman at a different gym before trying to start a fire there too, resulting in property damage. After this most recent incident, the man was arrested and sent to a mental hospital for a mandated psychiatric evaluation.


Naturally, Redditors wondered what could have driven this man to do something so bizarre and potentially dangerous, and one person jokingly ventured their theory: “They told him he couldn’t cancel his gym membership without providing a certified, notarized letter and 28 references. So he decided to cancel it the easy way.” Others suggested that the man was irate at people not racking their weights or wiping down their equipment after use.


Meanwhile, other eagle-eyed observers noticed that one of the class participants fled the fire while still carrying their weights, so apparently it needs emphasizing that in case of emergency, you should safely put down your weights before trying to flee a burning room.