A village in Kunming Province is mourning after a man in his 20s killed his parents because of money and then murdered 17 other neighbors.
Yang Qingpei killed his 17 neighbors in Yema Village on Wednesday evening after he killed his parents and out of fear he would be identified, reported Xinhua News Agency. A few hours after the dead bodies were discovered, police arrested Yang on Thursday in the provincial capital of Kunming.
The 19 victims of Yang came from six different families. He killed 11 males and eight females, with the youngest victim being a three-year-old girl and the oldest 72 years old. Three were children.
The massacre is considered one of the worst mass slayings in China in recent years. Most of the mass killings use knives, poison, homemade explosives or burning since the country has tough gun laws.
Yang had confessed to killing his parents after he returned to his hometown village to ask them for money, according to Agence France-Press. Police said the incident was not linked to terrorism. A working group from the Ministry of Public Security has been deployed to oversee the case and manage local authorities in investigating the incident.
Two years ago, there was a deadly rampage in a train station in Kunming which left 30 people dead and injured more than 130 people