Article content continued

Singh said six of the seven suspects tested positive for drugs. Two of them had been detained before, one on charges of vehicle theft, another for rioting, he said.

He said it is believed that two cooking gas tanks were brought up to the top floor and used to start the fire, which spread rapidly and took firefighters an hour to extinguish.

Singh said the seven are all school dropouts and will be under police remand for a week. He said the case has been classified as murder and mischief by fire.

Singh said the school is also being investigated for flouting building safety rules.

Officials have said the school was operating without a fire safety permit and license, and that a dividing wall was illegally built on the top floor that blocked the victims from a second exit.

Firefighters and witnesses have described scenes of horror — first of boys screaming for help behind barred windows as neighbours watched helplessly, and later of burned bodies huddled in corners of the room. Officials initially said they suspected the fire was caused by an electrical short-circuit but later said this wasn’t the case.

The charred bodies were released Friday to family members after being identified through DNA testing and buried the same day. Hundreds of relatives and well-wishers mourned as bodies of 11 boys, wrapped in white shrouds, were lowered into the graves in a cemetery outside Kuala Lumpur. In another cemetery near Kuala Lumpur, two siblings and their cousin were laid to rest in the same grave while others were taken to their hometowns. The burials were sponsored and arranged by state Islamic authorities.