Rome, May 24 (IANS/AKI): An unemployed 64-year-old labourer in Italy's Sicily island died after setting himself alight, when he failed to repay a 10,000 euro loan and lost his home.

Giovanni Guarascio, from Vittoria village, sustained severe burns to 60 percent of his body when he doused himself with petrol and lit a match May 14 at the run-down cottage where he and his family lived.

The cottage was sold at an auction for 26,000 euros after Guarascio lost a 12-year battle with his local bank over the loan and the new owner of the property was trying to evict him.

Guarascio was unable to forgive himself after his youngest daughter, aged 28, had to give up her university education and look for a job as the family could not afford her studies, his lawyer said.

The impoverished Guarascio tried in vain to persuade the new owner to allow him, his wife and two daughters to continue living there as tenants, at least temporarily.

Dozens of people have committed suicide in Italy during its 20-month-long recession, many of them failed business owners.