Chengdu Bus Arson Incident

Chengdu Bus Arson Incident (Chinese: 成都6·5公交燃烧事故) was a bus arson attack that occurred on 5 June 2009 in People's Republic of China Chengdu, and at the time of the incident 27 people were killed and 76 were injured.

The suspect in the Chengdu bus arson incident was 62-year-old Zhang Yunliang. He had no legitimate occupation and lived mainly by depending on his daughter's support. Zhang gambled with his living expenses, and when his daughter reduced his living allowance, he threatened suicide to demand money from the family. In a phone call with his daughter he said, "I will disappear from this world tomorrow. But the way I die will be different from anyone else's." On 5 June 2009 he boarded the bus carrying a flammable substance. Passengers shouted for the bus to stop, saying it smelled of gasoline. However, the flammable substance flowed from the back of the bus toward the front, and static electricity was generated among the passengers, causing fire to start from the back. Passengers' clothes caught fire and black smoke began to rise. As a result, the bus was burned until only its frame remained.