The story appears on

Page A6

July 8, 2014

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

HomeNation

Police identify Hangzhou bus arsonist

HANGZHOU police yesterday identified the man who started the blaze aboard a city bus on Saturday that injured 29 people.

Bao Laixu, 34, was still in critical condition yesterday. He is from Gansu Province and only completed middle school.

Police said Bao lived in temporary residences in many parts of Zhejiang Province. He traveled from Yiwu to Hangzhou on Saturday morning.

He boarded the bus at Lingyin Temple at 4:09pm and started the fire at 5:03pm. He carried a backpack, inside which was a large container of banana oil that he used as an accelerant. Police has yet to ascertain the motive behind the attack.

A total of 29 people who were on the bus at the time of the blaze are still in hospital, 15 of whom are said to be in serious condition. Doctors from Beijing’s prestigious Tiantan and Jishuitan hospitals have arrived in Hangzhou to help deal with the high number of burns victims, police said.

In the wake of the incident, authorities in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang, launched an inspection of all firefighting and emergency equipment on city buses. In addition, armed patrols have been dispatched to 10 major bus terminals.

Police also said yesterday that the Hangzhou Foundation for Justice and Courage will today honor those people who helped tackle the blaze prior to the arrival of the emergency services. Many of them were passing motorists, who attempted to fight the fire with small extinguishers from their vehicles.


 

Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

娌叕缃戝畨澶 31010602000204鍙

Email this to your friend