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Firebomb kills student, teacher in Taoyuan

Premier Chang Chun-hsiung comforts a boy injured during yesterday's Molotov cocktail attack at a cram school in Taoyuan City. PHOTO: LI JUNG-PING, TAIPEI TIMES

A man tossed a Molotov cocktail into a math school yesterday in Taoyuan city, killing a teacher and nine-year-old boy and injuring 16 others.

The dead were identified as 37-year-old teacher Huang Chiu-min (黃秋閔), who ran the Chiayu Mental Arithmetic School for Children (佳育兒童心算), and pupil Lo Kuan-lin (羅冠麟).

Twelve other children between ages eight and 11, and four adults -- including Huang's parents, Huang A-chuan (黃阿傳), 60, and Huang-Yang Hsiu-chin (黃楊秀琴), 58 -- were also hospitalized with injuries from the fire that engulfed the classroom during the middle of the lunch break.

The school is on the first three floors of a four-story building. The regular fire escape at the back of the building was blocked, forcing the victims to go to the top floor where firefighters used a ladder help them evacuate, police said.

One boy was in critical condition from smoke inhalation, while the rest of the injured remained in stable condition. Two of the injured adults ran a food stall outside the school, police said.

The school offers mental arithmetic classes -- typical of the "talent classes" popular around Taiwan -- for children after school hours and on holidays. There were 28 students studying at the cram school yesterday afternoon.

Witnesses said they heard Huang having an argument with a man in the morning and saw a man wearing a motorcycle helmet entering the school shortly before the fire.

Police were still hunting for the arson suspect, whom they identified as an ex-convict named Chung Teh-chu (鐘德樹), who has a criminal record of extortion. Police said the suspect may have had previous disputes with the principal.

"The attack may have been prompted by a financial dispute," police said.

Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) visited the injured children yesterday afternoon.

Meanwhile, authorities were investigating whether the school's facilities were up to safety standards, Chang said.

Officials at Taoyuan City Government, however, said yesterday that because the school was unregistered, they are not sure whether the city's Bureau of Social Affairs or the Bureau of Education should be responsible for the case.

According to the officials, there are as many as 545 unregistered private schools or afternoon schools in Taoyuan City, and the city government is now attempting to outlaw these private schools.
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