Three kindergarten students were killed and 14 others, including
a teacher, injured in an arson attack in a classroom in central
China's Henan Province yesterday morning.
The gruesome incident occurred at about 9 AM at a kindergarten
in Shiguan Village, Gongyi City.
A 19-year-old villager, Bai Ningyang, reportedly broke into a
classroom, locked the door and started a fire with gasoline, police
said. 21 children and their teacher were in the classroom at the
time.
Two children, aged five, died on the spot. Another died later in
hospital. The injured, some in critical condition, are being
treated at local hospitals.
The kindergarten has been closed, according to police.
The arsonist escaped from the scene and is at large, police
said, adding that his motive is under investigation.
Media reports say that revenge was the motive. Bai's advances
were reportedly spurned by one of the teachers at the kindergarten.
But these reports have not been confirmed by local police
authorities.
Local police have offered a 20,000-yuan reward for Bai's
capture. The city has mobilized 800 police officers to hunt him
down.
In March, the authorities announced that they would start
posting police at schools throughout the country following a series
of knife attacks on children, hostage-takings and fires.
Most of the attacks were blamed on personal grudges or people
with psychiatric problems.
In October last year, a man opened fire with six homemade guns
at a school yard in east China's Anhui Province as students did their morning
exercises, wounding 16 children and two adults.
In October 2004, a five-year-old boy and his teacher were killed
at Beixin Kindergarten in eastern Beijing.
Two months earlier, a janitor wielding a kitchen knife stabbed
15 children and at least two teachers at a kindergarten in Beijing,
killing one child.
(China Daily May 9, 2006)