Public security authorities publicly rewarded a pedicab driver Tuesday for the tip-off that led to the capture of a university student suspected of killing four of his classmates.

The 250,000-yuan (US$30,000) reward went to 29-year-old Chen Xianzhuang, a part-time pedicab driver who reported seeing a man resembling Ma Jiajue, the suspect, near a marketplace in Sanya City Monday night. Sanya is located in China's southernmost province of Hainan.

Chen said he heard about Ma Jiajue when the Ministry of Public Security issued a nationwide appeal to hunt for the suspect two weeks ago. Chen said he was driving his motorcycle past a market in Sanya when he spotted Ma rifling through trash. Recognizing him from the wanted posters, Chen followed the suspect for a while before calling the police.

Ma was seized at about 7:30 PM Monday after local police surrounded the market and conducted a search. Sanya is some 1,000 kilometers southeast of Kunming City, where the bludgeoned bodies were found stuffed in a Yunnan University dormitory closet on February 23.

Ma disguised himself as a beggar and tried to act the fool when he was caught, a spokesman for the Sanya City Bureau of Public Security said.

"Ma had with him 2,400 yuan (US$290) and an earphone when he was seized," said Wu Riguang, a policeman with the Sanya City Bureau of Public Security.

Ma admitted his crime during preliminary interrogations and said in a TV interview that he had sought revenge after a quarrel with his classmates while playing cards, according to the city public security bureau.

Classmates and teachers described Ma, a 23-year-old biochemistry major at Yunnan University, as introverted and with few friends on campus.

Ma reportedly first fled to Guangdong and then made his way to Sanya.

He was born in Binyang County of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and was the youngest child in his family, according to previous reports.

Ma was listed as chief suspect by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security in the killings of four students whose bodies were found stuffed in a dormitory closet at the Kunming-based Yunnan University on Feb. 23.

The ministry issued an urgent warrant for Ma's arrest on March 1 and offered a 200,000-yuan (US$24,300) reward for information leading to his apprehension. Sanya City authorities gave another 50,000 yuan reward to Chen Xianzhuang.

Custody of Ma was transferred Tuesday to police from Yunnan Province, who arrived in Sanya to further investigate the case.
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(Xinhua News Agency March 17, 2004)