A fatal school bus fire in China last month in which 11 school children including five from South Korea were killed was caused by its disgruntled driver, who was angry over non-payment of overtime wages, Chinese authorities said today.
A fatal school bus fire in China last month in which 11 school children including five from South Korea were killed was caused by its disgruntled driver, who was angry over non-payment of overtime wages, Chinese authorities said today.
A high-level inquiry instituted by the Chinese government found that the driver, surnamed Cong, 50, set the bus ablaze at a tunnel leaving little chance for the kindergarten children to escape.
However, the Chinese officials version blaming the driver was questioned by parents of some of the South Korean children killed in the incident and instead suspected the condition of the bus.
Cong was also was burnt alive along 11 children and a lady school teacher. The 11 children were aged between three and six, with five from South Korea and the rest from China.
The fire was started on the bus floor near the driver's seat. A lighter cap was discovered nearby and gasoline residue found on multiple spots on the bus, according to Wang Jincheng, deputy chief of the Shandong provincial public security bureau.
"The driver was disgruntled because his overtime and night shift allowance were stopped, causing his income to plummet," the Weihai city government said on its Weibo microblogging account.
The bus was involved in a rear-end accident shortly before the fire, but after investigation, police said the fire was deliberate, state-run Xinhua news agency reported The bus burst into flames inside Taojiakuang tunnel in Huancui district, Weihai city, while delivering children to a kindergarten. All 13, including a female teacher, on board died.
The 37-seat bus was owned by the tourist and renting branch of Weihai Public Transport Group. The bus had been rented to take children to kindergarten, part of an international school set up to accommodate the children of South Korean business people.
However the Chinese investigators version blaming the driver as mentally deranged person has not been found convincing for the parents of the South Korean children killed in the incident.
The driver and a female teacher also died in the inferno, which erupted inside a tunnel as the children headed to an international school in Shandong province on the morning of May 9.
The government of Weihai city, where the tragedy occurred, said the investigation concluded that the blaze was a case of arson committed by the driver.
"The driver was disgruntled because his overtime and night shift allowance were stopped, causing his income to plummet," the city government said on its Weibo microblogging account.
Authorities ruled out a short circuit or a traffic accident as other potential causes.
"Investigators did not look at the state of the vehicle, including how old it was" as a possible cause of the accident, Kim Mi-Suk, a father of one of the victims told South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
"The unconvincing explanation by the Chinese government gives an impression that they were trying to frame it as a fault of the driver," Kim said.
Yonhap report said the driver was found in the middle of the passenger seats, which suggests he might have been trying to rescue children trapped in the back of the vehicle,.
Lee Jung-Kyu whose child was also killed questioned the investigators' characterisation of the driver as "mentally deranged".
"I know he was such a nice, delightful person who always greeted the children and their parents...he's not a person who could do such things to children he has known for more than two years," Lee said.
Police in China routinely blame attacks on school children as well as knife attacks on people reportedly by disgruntled people on mentally deranged people.
(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
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