Yang Qingpei killed his parents 'in a rage' after they refused to pay his debts. (Representational Image)
Highlights
- Yang Qingpei killed his parents 'in a rage'
- His parents had refused to pay his debts
- Fearing he would be discovered, Yang killed 17 neighbours
A 27-year-old Chinese man killed his parents who refused to repay his debts and allegedly murdered 17 neighbours, including children, to cover up the crime in southwestern Yunnan province. The gory incident has shocked the nation.
After returning to his hometown on Wednesday, Yang Qingpei killed his parents 'in a rage' after they refused to pay his debts.
Fearing he would be discovered by community members, Yang allegedly killed 17 neighbours, including three children, before escaping to the provincial capital of Kunming, where he works, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
After an investigation, police identified Yang as the suspect and caught him the next day in Kunming, it said.
Yang was arrested in Kunming, about 124 miles from the site of the murders in Yema, Yunnan police said on their official microblog.
The suspect confessed to killing 19 people after a conflict with his parents, who were among the victims, police said.
The victims were members of six families. Further investigation led by the Ministry of Public Security is under way. The bodies were found on Thursday at different locations in the village, a state-run news website said.
Mass killings are rare in China and the incident dominated discussion on social media platforms.