The young Albanian with 30% burns on his body saved his fiancee from the maniac in the USA

Petrit Alijaj, 23 years old, has been living in New York for a year, but today he is hospitalized there with 30% of his body burned by a maniac who threw fuel on his fiancee and cousin, with whom he was walking .

The American press writes today about the young man who was severely burned when a maniac who threw the hot liquid on the subway on Saturday quickly jumped in front of his fiancee to protect her with his body.

The Post went to the hospital where Petrit Alijaj, 23, his upper body fully covered in bandages, lay in bed at New York's Weill Cornell Presbyterian Hospital, but still shaken from the random attack earlier in the day. .

Doctors told him he had burns on 30% of his body and is expected to stay in hospital for at least a week to recover.

It was worth it, he said, to protect his fiancée. "I protected my fiancee with my body," he told The Post. He said he was in "not so much pain now", which he attributed to the medicine he was given, but before... "oh my god!"

Alijaj, who is originally from Albania, said he was sitting on train no. 1 with his fiancee and cousin and were on their way to visit the Statue of Liberty around 2:45 p.m. when they stopped at the Varick Street station in lower Manhattan.

The attacker, later identified as 49-year-old Nile Taylor, entered with a cup filled with liquid.

“He had a cup,” Alijaj said, pointing to a cup on his bedside table, “like this one, maybe a little smaller, with something in it, like oil, that he lit on fire and poured it all around. "

He made a motion of pouring juice from a cup to demonstrate. Petriti said he was able to lift his body to protect his fiancee and cousin, who were sitting nearby.

His shirt caught fire and he immediately started hitting himself with his hands to put out the flames on the train, he said.

" I shot myself to put out the fire ," he said. " And while I was running, I was burning ," added the victim.

The attacker Taylor also escaped from the train and Petrit Aliaj was worried that he might return with more flammable liquid.

At one point, Alijaj managed to tear off his burning T-shirt. He didn't think the burns were that bad at first, but said he realized he was covered in blisters when he arrived at the hospital with burns on his neck, ears, chest, arms and left hand.

After the episode, he was seen washing his burns with water from a fire engine hose.

He told The Post that doctors were not yet sure how severe his burns were, saying they needed to determine "how deep the fire had penetrated the skin."

"The doctors said 30% of my body was burnt," he said. "But I don't think it's 30%," he added optimistically, smiling. "Maybe more than 10%."

The inside of Alijaj's ear was covered in giant, painful-looking blisters.

"Yes I can hear," he told the Post proudly. Thank God, he said, my face was not damaged - that he managed to cover it. Alijaj said he has been living in New York for about a year.

Taylor was arrested shortly after the attack after police tracked down a cell phone he had thrown from the platform as he fled, police and sources said.

The gunman was caught about five blocks away at Canal Street and Renick Street, near the entrance to the Holland Tunnel.

Saturday's attack is the second time in four months that someone has thrown incendiary liquid on a train following a similar incident in February. Police are investigating whether Taylor was also responsible for that incident, police sources said.