CHINA: Two teenagers have been arrested on suspicion of deliberately starting a fire at a Beijing Internet café which killed 24 people, officials said yesterday.
The youths, aged 13 and 14, were seized by police on Tuesday; 24 students died in the blaze at the Lanjisu Internet café in Beijing's university district early on Sunday.Nine were in the same class at the Beijing Science and Technology University.
The dead were trapped inside the unlicensed second-storey café, which had bars across its windows and a single, locked exit. Another 13 people were injured, many suffering terrible burns.
Yesterday's statement said both youths were regularly absent from their school following the divorces of their parents. "Both admitted they often went to play in the Internet café. Two weeks ago they had a disagreement with the owner and in revenge they bought gasoline and set it on fire."
Investigators said traces of fuel had been found at the site of the blaze. The two youths had purchased 1.8 litres of gasoline at a nearby service station approximately three hours before the fire.
The fire led to a crackdown on Internet cafés across China. Beijing's vice-mayor condemned them yesterday as an "opium" for the country's youth.
Mr Liu Zhihua said the cyber cafés, which have sprouted all over China in recent years, were a bad influence on children and many parents were backing the city's shutdown of its 2,400 establishments.
"We have a strong response from city residents complaining that young people are staying up all night playing computer games. Even their parents don't know where they are. They don't listen in class and they can't concentrate in school," Mr Liu said.
"Many parents complain about Internet cafés opening next to schools. It's an opium." Within hours of Sunday's blaze, authorities announced that all Internet cafés in the city - only 10 per cent of which are licensed - would be shut pending investigation.
State media have also condemned Internet cafés, where large numbers of mainly young people gather to meet, chat on-line and play computer games, as an unwholesome influence.