China bus fire kills 17
January 5, 2016
Chinese authorities say they have detained a 33-year-old man who they say was so upset over a financial dispute he set fire to a moving bus.
The incident happened at around 7 a.m. local time on Tuesday in Helan County, Yinchuan City, China's state-run news agency Xinhua reported.
The blaze left 17 people dead and a further 32 injured, eight seriously.
Footage on the People's Daily Twitter page showed flames coming out of the bus windows, while eyewitnesses described how the flames trapped passengers inside the vehicle.
A spokeswoman for the Ningxia fire department said firefighters put out the fire in 10 minutes.
Suspected revenge attack
The suspect, Ma Yonping, was later detained at a nearby construction site after a four-hour standoff.
According to state media, he had carried two buckets of gasoline onto the bus, ignited them with a lighter and then escaped from the window on the driver's side.
The broadcaster CCTV said the injured ranged from 20 to 65 years old.
The city's mayor told a press conderence that DNA samples were being collected to identify the dead.
Several bus fires in recent years have been blamed on people with personal vendettas or who were mentally unstable.
In 2013, 47 people died on a bus in eastern China after a suicidal man started a fire.
ksb/mm/cmk (AFP, AP, dpa)