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Firefighters and investigators work at the site of the bus fire in Helan county.
Firefighters and investigators work at the site of the bus fire in Helan county. Photograph: Li Ran/Xinhua/Corbis
Firefighters and investigators work at the site of the bus fire in Helan county. Photograph: Li Ran/Xinhua/Corbis

Man arrested after 17 die in suspected arson attack on Chinese bus

This article is more than 8 years old

Flames engulfed the bus in front of a furniture store in the northern region of Ningxia injuring a further 32 people

Chinese police have arrested a man suspected of starting a bus fire that killed 17 people, state media has reported.

Flames engulfed the vehicle outside a furniture store in the northern region of Ningxia. A further 32 people were injured in the attack.

A spokesperson for the Ningxia fire department said firefighters took 10 minutes to extinguish the blaze.

Police surrounded and seized the suspected arsonist after launching a manhunt, the People’s Daily reported on its microblog.

Detectives in Helan county were investigating the blaze. State media did not speculate on a motive for the attack.

Traffic accidents are relatively common in China where safety standards are often lax. There have been several bus fires in recent years.

Last year, a 35-year-old man was executed for starting a fire on a bus in the city of Hangzhou in July 2014 that injured 33. A court said Bao Laixu had been seeking revenge against society and had wanted to kill himself after a relapse of tuberculosis.

In 2013 a suicidal man started a fire on a bus in eastern China that killed 47 people including himself, state media said.

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