Police in China's northern province of Shanxi have arrested three men for the murder of 14 fellow villagers linked to a dispute over mining rights and official corruption, police said this Monday.
Armed with shotguns, explosives and knives, the trio broke into the homes of nine families in Dayukou village on the outskirts of Jinzhong, killed 14 people, including eight males and six femals, and wounded three at around midnight on last Friday.
The three were 46-year-old Hu Wenhai, his brother Hu Qinghai, 44, and 40-year-old Liu Haiwang, state media reported.
"We caught the Hu brothers shortly after the rampage, and tracked down Liu on Saturday night," a police officer in Jinzhong said.
The three were now under interrogation as police investigated the motive behind the murders, he said.
"It was probably out of revenge over some business disputes," he said.
A village claimed that the Hu brothers had made their fortune running village-owned mines.
The third killer, Liu, was a close friend of the Hu brothers, she said.
Neither police nor state media said when the three would be put on trial but detailed evidence is often made public before a criminal trial.
(China Daily October 29, 2001)
