A man died from several burns he received near the United Nations building in New York City, police said on Thursday. 

The man was an exiled Tibetan who had set himself on fire in a protest for the country's independence, activists and a media outlet said, according to NBC News. 

Police responded to an emergency call near the U.N. building around 6:30 p.m. ET on Thursday and found a man who was severely burned, a New York City Police Department spokesman said. 

The Tibetan man was taken to Bellvue Hospital where he was pronounced dead, and the investigation is ongoing, police said. 

According to the Voice of Tibet, a media outlet of exiled Tibetans, the Tibetan activist "self-immolated outside the U.N. headquarters in New York after a live appeal for Tibetan independence and unity."