Suspect in fatal China fire that killed 14 women angry over pay

BEIJING (AP) - Chinese state media quoted a former worker as saying he set the fire that killed 14 young women at a Chinese undergarment factory because he was angry about less than US$500 in unpaid wages.

The suspect, Liu Shuangyun, told the Guangdong TV broadcaster in a jailhouse interview on Wednesday morning that he started the fire "because I couldn't get my salary," which he had been owed since quitting the factory three years ago.

Asked whether he had thought about or regretted the loss of life the fire had caused, Liu said: "I didn't think about these things." Fourteen people were killed and one was seriously injured in the fire on Tuesday afternoon in Shantou city in Guangdong province, the provincial emergency department said on its microblog.

The 14 victims were all women aged 18 to 20, the Southern Metropolis Daily said in an online report. The official Xinhua News Agency said the victims were 13 women and one man. It said Liu, a 26-year-old migrant worker from Hunan province, had been arrested, but it didn't specify what charges he faced.