7 teenagers arrested for causing religious school fire

KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysian police have arrested seven teenagers in relation to the religious school fire that killed 23 people. Kuala Lumpur police chief Mr Amar Singh said the boys, aged 11 to 18, were detained between 6.30pm on Friday (Sept 15) and 2.30am on Saturday.

The teenagers were believed to have had a disagreement with the school students. Five were picked up in a house while the other two were detained at different locations in the Datuk Keramat area.

It is learnt that a police probe on the seven teenagers arrested in connection with the incident revealed that they had used cooking gas and petrol to start the blaze.

Mr Singh said all seven have been remanded for seven days — from Sept 16 to Sept 22 — to facilitate investigations.

Sources said the teenagers had told police that five of the suspects were angry with the school students following a name-calling incident.

"Two of them had initially planned to break into the school to steal the students' handphones,” said the source.

"When they gathered at an eatery besides a premises near the school early Thursday morning, the suspects had discussed about burning the school as revenge.

"Two of them went to buy petrol.

"About 4.30am, the boys then gathered at a field behind the tahfiz school, before three of them sneaked into the school."

Sources said the suspects, upon finding out that the hostel's door was locked, returned downstairs.

They then broke into a food kiosk nearby where they stole two cooking gas cylinders.

"Three of them then took the cylinders to the third floor of the hostel. One of them poked the cylinders' heads to release the gas,” said the source.

"They then poured petrol on the staircase starting from the third floor before igniting the petrol using a lighter."

The teens then fled the scene on motorcycles.

“With the arrests, we believe we have solved the case. Police managed to identify the suspects through the closed-circuit television footage retrieved from Malaysian Muslim Consumers' Association.

“Six were tested positive for ganja and they were believed to have been high on drugs when they conducted the action,” said Mr Singh. NEW STRAITS TIMES