Boys Jailed for Deadly Fire at Illegal Internet Cafe

A Beijing court has sentenced two boys to life in prison for starting a fire in an underground internet cafe in the Chinese capital that killed 25 people.

The culprits - identified only by their surnames as Song, who was 14 at the time, and Liu, whose age was not reported - were found guilty of the arson attack on the cafe in June. The judgment was made in secret last month.

A female accomplice was given a 12-year prison term and another 13-year-old boy was sent to a Beijing reform school.

The official Xinhua news agency said: "Their activities caused severe damage to public and private property, constituted arson, and the results were extremely serious."

The two main culprits reportedly escaped the death penalty because of their age.

It was alleged that the teenagers, who were seen buying petrol at a garage just before the blaze, started the fire at the Lanjisu internet cafe in the Haidian university district to get back at the owner for refusing them entry.

After setting the building on fire, they went to play video games.

Most of the cafe's customers could not escape because the door was locked and windows blocked by iron bars.

Such safety violations are common at illegal internet cafes, which need to avoid police attention and prevent the theft of their hardware.

Many operate underground to avoid tight restrictions by a government that regards the internet as a source of pornography and subversive ideas. According to the authorities, only 200 of the estimated 2,400 internet cafes have permits.

The authorities have closed thousands of internet cafes since the fire for lacking proper business licences or violating safety and fire prevention laws.