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Bus company offers reward for fire clues

By Huang Zhiling and Wang Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-04 13:01

CHENGDU: A local bus company has promised to reward any of its riders who report other passengers bringing suspicious or flammable liquids onboard.

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The action comes in response to a deadly fire aboard a bus on June 5, deliberately set by a man who committed suicide. The fire killed 27 people and injured 74.

"The company has told us to keep a watchful eye on people bringing dubious objects aboard," said Yang Qifu, a 35-year-old driver, on Friday.

The morning of June 5, the fire quickly swallowed up an overcrowded bus in this capital of Sichuan province.

Sichuan police said on Thursday that a 62-year-old man named Zhang Yunliang, from Suzhou, Jiangsu province, was the arsonist.

Around 7:40 am, Zhang allegedly brought a full plastic bucket of gasoline onboard the bus in Tianhui, the starting bus stop on Route No 9.

Survivors reported that Zhang, sitting in the rear, poured gasoline from the bucket onto the floor of the bus.

An investigation found traces of gasoline flowing from the floor beside Zhang's seat to the front of the bus.

After analyzing the posture and direction of Zhang's body, police came to the conclusion that he did not intend to escape.

Zhang had been addicted to gambling before he arrived in Chengdu in 2006 and was living off his daughter's financial support.

On June 4, he told his daughter in a phone call that he would be "finished" the next day and he would die in a manner different from others.