KUALA LUMPUR: One of the teenagers arrested in connection with Thursday's tahfiz school fire had returned to the scene of the crime several hours later to witness the aftermath of their action.
The 15-year-old suspect was said to have casually chatted with one of the Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah tahfiz school students, telling the student “he did not know” what had transpired there.
This was the claim made by one of the school’s students, who had bumped into the suspect at the scene.
The student told the New Straits Times that at the time, he did not suspect anything amiss during their brief conversation, as the latter acted just like any of the other curious onlookers.
“I knew one of the boys as he was my friend. I first met him at the Dato' Keramat lake behind our school, where he often hangs out with the others.
“That morning, I saw him at the scene about 8am. He had approached me and asked 'macam mana boleh jadi macam ni'? (How could this happen)
"At that time, I did not suspect anything. He then left the place shortly after we spoke. I was stunned upon learning later that he was among those arrested by police for causing the fire," said the student, whose identity has to be withheld as the case is still under police investigation.
The student said he was also lucky to be alive, as he had returned to his family's home, also in Kuala Lumpur, the evening before the incident.
He said he was saved by a gut feeling, where he had missed his parents to the extent that he asked for the teachers’ permission to return home.
“I was sleeping when my mother woke me up, saying that my school was on fire. At first, I thought she was joking.
“Upon realising that she was not, my father and I then rushed to the school. By the time I arrived, my hostel was already engulfed in flames.
“It was already quiet. There was no shouting or any voice from my friends by then."
The 5am blaze on Thursday saw 21 students and two teachers of the school, aged between 6 and 26, killed when they could not escape from its hostel, located on the top floor of the school's three-storey temporary premises in Dato' Keramat, here.
Authorities investigating the fire then found that it involved foul play, before further probes led them to the seven teenagers aged between 11 and 18.
City police chief Datuk Amar Singh had on Saturday told reporters that the incident was motivated by revenge following a name-calling incident between the suspects and students of the school recently.
He said investigations revealed that the suspects had used two cooking gas cylinders and an accelerant to start the fire.
The teenagers are being remanded for seven days. The case is being investigated for murder.
* Additional reporting by Soo Wern Jun