Closed locally path-connected subspaces of finite-dimensional groups are locally compact

We prove that each closed locally continuum- connected subspace of a finite dimensional topological group is locally compact. This allows us to construct many 1-dimensional metrizable separable spaces that are not homeomorphic to closed subsets of finite-dimensional topological groups, which answers in negative a question of D.Shakhmatov. Another corollary is a characterization of Lie groups as finite-dimensional locally continuum-connected topological groups. For locally path connected topological groups this characterization was proved by Gleason and Palais in 1957.