A fire performer ended up with severe burns after using alcohol-based hand sanitiser and red food dye to set himself alight in a performance, US doctors are reporting.

The 23-year-old was among a minority group of fire performers who take the risk beyond fire breathing by “painting fire on the body”, they say.

All went well during a performance using hand-sanitiser alone. But his next gig, when he added red food colouring to the sanitiser, required an immediate trip to hospital for burns.

He was treated with excision and autografting of the left arm, with skin graft matrix applied to his legs, before he was transferred to the US Army Burn Centre in Houston, Texas on the seventh day.