Federal charges were filed on Wednesday against a man accused of setting a woman on fire on a CTA Blue Line train in downtown Chicago this week.

Lawrence Reed, 50, was charged in a criminal complaint with committing a terrorist attack or other violence on a mass transportation system — a federal offense rather than a state offense.

Andrew Boutros, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said the 26-year-old victim was minding her own business and reading her phone on an O'Hare-bound Blue Line train around 9 p.m. Monday when Reed came up and set her on fire with no provocation whatsoever.

"The surveillance video is difficult to watch, and very disturbing, as a young woman was set ablaze, and tried to put herself out, while other passengers got out of the way or watched,"

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