Five suspects of a gang rape case have been captured by police in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, but seven suspects are still at large, said the Police Headquarters of the Regional Public Security Department Monday.

A group of 12 young men aged between 15 to 19 tricked a schoolgirl aged about 15 into drinking beer laced with narcotics in a rented house in Xishanzui Town of Bayannur City on March 23. They put eight Triazolam tablets in her beer bottle that made her lose consciousness and raped her.

The local police were informed of the case on March 26 and caught one 17-year-old suspect surnamed Sun that afternoon. Sun confessed the crime. Later, the police captured four more suspects. 

All the suspects were jobless with the highest educational level of middle school. Only three of them were above 18, said the police, who are still hunting the other offenders.

(Xinhua News Agency April 6, 2004)