A 50-year-old unemployed man died on Sunday after setting himself on fire the previous day on a central avenue of an Athens northern suburb, Greek authorities announced.

State hospital officials said that the man, whose identity remained undisclosed, succumbed to burns after pouring fuel on his body and setting himself ablaze, despite doctors' efforts to save his life.

Motive of the man, who was initially reported to be younger, has still not been clarified. According to Greek media reports, he was a father of a child, jobless since 2010, after the closure of a factory where he was employed for years, and was suffering from depression.

Record high unemployment rates exceeding 27 percent of the working force, fuelled by a tough austerity and reform program introduced to pull debt-laden Greece away from the brink of default with international bailout aid, have been linked to a sharp rise in the number of suicides in the country.

From the start of the crisis in late 2009 to late 2012, according to official data, there have been more than 3,000 incidents nationwide, a 40-percent increase in comparison with previous years, before the crisis hit Greece.