All six suspects involved in the examination paper leak scandal in northern China's Liaoning Province have been caught, the Northeastern News reported yesterday.

Police in Anshan City caught Wang Xufang, an ex-convict, and five others early yesterday after receiving information from people who had sold copies of this year's high school entrance test papers, the information office of the Anshan government said.

Police also seized a laptop computer, copies of 23 examination papers and a car.

Wang, 38, is said to have been jailed in 1991 for theft but was released last year.

Wang, who helped print exam papers while serving his prison sentence, began planning in May to steal exam papers which were being printed at a local prison.

Wang and two other prisoners managed to copy four of the examination papers.

A set of four examination papers could reportedly fetch between 2,500 yuan (US$364) and 5,000 yuan.

Fifteen people found selling the copies and people who bought copies have been questioned but no students or parents were involved, according to the report.

More than 12,000 junior middle school students in Anshan went back to their classrooms on Monday to resit exam because of the leak.

The entrance exam was originally held on Saturday and Sunday.

But local education authorities received a report of the leak after the Chinese test on Saturday morning, Xinhua News Agency said.

The Anshan government decided to scrap the Chinese and science tests on Saturday night after checking the questions on the copies and the test papers.

The mathematics and English examinations for the next day used backup papers.

(Shanghai Daily July 4, 2008)