Man to go on trial for arson and murder

Prosecutors have filed a case against a man suspected of setting fire and killing his neighbors.

According to the No.2 Branch of Shanghai People’s Procuratorate, the suspect, Xu Lin, a 27-year-old jobless Shanghai native, lived in an old neighborhood on Wenzhou Road in Huangpu District.

He was bothered by frequent water leaks at his room and gradually he became dissatisfied with his life and he decided to vent his anger by setting arson on the building, prosecutors said.

At 3am on February 14, he locked the gate of the building to block his neighbors from escaping the fire. He poured coal oil on the corridor on the first floor, the terrace on the second floor and his room. He also sprayed alcohol on his new clothes, lit them on fire and threw to where he had poured coal oil, prosecutors said.

His neighbors ran out of their rooms after the building was engulfed by flames. But he wielded a dagger to them to prevent them from running away, prosecutors said.

As his two neighbors ran to the terrace on the second floor, he slashed them on their neck and chest, causing the two to die at the scene. Another neighbor was burned to death, prosecutors said.

Xu will go on trial for arson and murder, prosecutors said.