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| Suspected Bus Attack in China Kills 14 | ||
| 2016-01-06 | ||
| [ALMANAR.LB] Fourteen people were burned to death and 32 injured after a public bus went up in flames in a suspected arson attack in China on Tuesday, state media said. Police have identified a suspect in the incident, according to a post on a verified social media account of state broadcaster CCTV. The broadcaster posted pictures of the 33-year-old man and personal identifying information, adding that police were "investigating and pursuing" him for his role in "a serious crime". It did not give any indication of a possible motive. Earlier, officials in Yinchuan, the capital of the remote Ningxia region where the incident occurred, said only that the bus had "suddenly caught fire" near a public square. A total of 32 people were being treated in hospital, according to CCTV, with eight suffering from "serious injuries". In past years, there have been several cases of attacks on Chinese public transportation, especially buses. In 2013 a suicidal man started a fire on a bus in eastern China that killed 47 people including himself, state media said.
Police captured Ma Yongping, 33, Tuesday after the blaze engulfed the vehicle in flames in Yinchuan, the capital of remote Ningxia region. Ma, a college graduate who had studied in Japan, had accumulated more than 300,000 yuan ($46,000) in debts while a contractor on an engineering project, much of it salaries for his workers, according to an article on Chinese news site Sina which was removed shortly after it appeared on Wednesday. The company refused to pay him, it said, and according to the Beijing Youth Daily, on the morning of the attack he sent a message to friends on chat application WeChat saying: "At a time when even a person's basic rights can't be guaranteed, he has a right to take action to fight for (them)." Under interrogation, Ma told police he purchased two jerry cans of petrol at a filling station and used a lighter to set the bus aflame, the Beijing Youth Daily reported. Chinese citizens have sometimes turned to violence against innocents in attempts to publicize their plight after failing to obtain redress for low-level disputes.
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| Posted by:Fred |