BOSTON -- Police in East Boston are searching for the person who lit a cat on fire and threw it into a home.

Officials said that at about 7:15 a.m., someone wrapped the animal in a rag, lit it on fire and tossed it through the first-floor window of a triple-decker home at 207 Princeton St.

The occupant was not home at the time, according to the Boston Fire Department. The cat died, but no residents of the building were injured.