Boy hired killers via the internet because family was putting too much pressure on him over school studies, say reports

This article is more than 7 years old

This article is more than 7 years old

A teenage boy in central China has been detained on suspicion of hiring hitmen to kill his father and sister because he resented their strict discipline, state media have reported.

Police found the bodies of the two victims on Sunday after neighbours heard suspicious noises at their home in Zhoukou, Henan province, and raised the alarm, the official news agency Xinhua said.

Gao Tianfeng, 49, was the former president of Luyi county court. His daughter, in her 20s, was said to have been living with her younger brother to oversee his studies.

Police told local media that surveillance video at their residential community showed two young men wearing baseball caps jumping over the fence of the house shortly after 2am and leaving by the same route afterwards.

The state-run Global Times newspaper said police had arrested Gao's son, a student at a senior high school in Luohe, about 70km from Zhoukou, and a second male. It added that a preliminary investigation showed that the teenager hired two contract killers via the internet because he believed his father and sister were putting too much pressure on him over his studies.

But the China News Service said police were continuing their inquiries because a third suspect remained at large.

Police in Zhoukou referred queries to the local propaganda office, where calls rang unanswered.

Chinese pupils face intense pressure to study, particularly in the runup to the extraordinarily competitive college entrance exams. Success or failure in the "gaokao" can determine their future.

In 2011, research by the Pew Global Attitudes Project found that China was the only country in which most people – 68% – thought parents put too much pressure on students.

A study in Zhejiang province suggested that a third of primary school children were suffering headaches and stomach pains, which researchers suggested were psychosomatic, reflecting the intense focus on their academic achievements.