Police arrest 7 boys linked to deadly school fire
KUALA LUMPUR (AP): MALAYSIAN POLICE said yesterday they have arrested seven boys suspected of intentionally starting a fire at an Islamic boarding school that killed 23 people because students there had teased them.
Kuala Lumpur police chief Amar Singh said the boys, aged 11 to 18, were rounded up since last Friday night after they were identified in CCTV footage from a neighbouring building that showed them near the school the night of the fire.
The predawn blaze last Thursday at a three-storey ‘tahfiz’ school, where Muslim boys study and memorise the Quran, blocked the lone exit to the dormitory on the top floor, trapping students behind barred windows. Two adults and 21 students, aged between 6 and 17, were killed.