KUALA LUMPUR: Police are believed to have picked up more people in connection with Thursday's tahfiz school fire that killed 23 in Kampung Datuk Keramat here.
Sources told the New Straits Times that investigators have detained at least seven people.
Those arrested were said to be between the ages of 15 and 22, and among them, were students of the school located in Jalan Keramat Hujung.
It has not been established if the seven included a student whom police had detained and took to the scene yesterday, as part of the ongoing suspected arson investigation.
Meanwhile, attempts to get an official confirmation on the arrests and further details have proved to be unsuccessful, as police remained tight-lipped on latest developments.
City police chief Datuk Amar Singh, when contacted, said he would reveal details about the arrests and other updates at a press conference, which will be held at the city police headquarters at 11am tomorrow.
However, despite declining to confirm the arrests, Amar also did not deny the matter when queried.
"It won't be good if I tell bits and pieces (on the case).
"Let me come with a detailed explanation tomorrow. I promise you that it will be a complete press conference tomorrow.
"Let me have a proper press conference tomorrow, (I will tell) from the beginning to the end."
It was reported that authorities investigating the 5am fire is now focusing into possibility of foul play at work, following new leads discovered.
Among the evidences that they were scrutinising are the two cooking gas cylinders at the scene, and CCTV footages that showed a person sneaking into the school from the building next door about two hours before the fire.
Sources have told NST that the incident could have been motivated by revenge.
Another source said there was information that there had been a fight between students of the religious school before.
However, this had yet to be confirmed to have connection to the blaze.
The incident saw 23 people including 21 students aged between 6 and 16 killed when they could not escape the fire.