Arson attack on Chinese bus kills 17

Police have arrested suspect who reportedly carried two buckets of petrol on to the bus.

The burnt bus after a fire on a street in Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in China. Reuters

BEIJING // Seventeen people were burnt to death and 32 injured after a public bus went up in flames in an arson attack in China on Tuesday.

The fire happened in Yinchuan, the capital of Ningxia region, at about 7 am, the regional government said.

Ningxia government said firefighters put out the flames in five minutes, and that eight of the injured were in critical condition.

It said the preliminary investigation showed the fire was an act of arson.

Chinese police arrested the suspect, Ma Yongping, 33, after authorities cornered him at a construction site in Yinchuan, the regional government said.

State media reported the suspect was upset over a financial dispute with a subcontractor on a settlement project.

The man carried two buckets of petrol on to the bus, ignited them with a lighter and escaped from the window on the bus driver’s side, state media said.

Earlier, officials in Yinchuan said only that the bus had “suddenly caught fire” in front of a furniture store near a public square.

Images of the incident posted online showed the bus completely engulfed in flames and a short video of police in yellow rain jackets gathering around the vehicle’s smoking, charred remains.

The city’s mayor said the local public security bureau was collecting DNA samples to identify the dead, according to an official social media account for the city.

State broadcaster CCTV posted a list of the names of 32 injured ranging in age from 20 to 65, adding that eight had suffered serious injuries.

In past years, there have been several cases of attacks on Chinese public transportation, especially buses.

Several serious bus fires have been blamed on people who were mentally unstable or with personal vendettas.

In 2013, a fire killed 47 people on a bus in the southeastern city of Xiamen. Police concluded a resident fed up with his life set the fire in anger and killed himself in the blaze.

Last year, a 35-year-old man was executed for starting a fire on a bus in Hangzhou in July 2014 that injured 33. A court said Bao Laixu had been seeking revenge against society and because he wanted to end his own life after a relapse of tuberculosis.

* Agencies