OREANDA-NEWS. June 28, 2013. After a suicide bombing that killed 47 people on a bus in Xiamen, authorities have imposed strict regulations as the final straw to curb the recurrence of such incidents.

THE Xiamen city has come out with new guidelines where buyers of petrol in bottles or containers must provide proof of use strictly for production or work purposes.

They will need to produce documents like a letter containing the person’s signature and information on the amount of petrol that they are required to buy and their purpose of use, endorsement and official stamps from their neighbourhood or village committee as well as from the police station, when buying petrol on the go.

Those who want to buy petrol to fill up the tank of their abandoned vehicle that has run out of petrol will need to sign a safety agreement with the petrol station.

The agreement must contain information on the amount of petrol purchased and the purpose of use.

The documents are only valid for three days and are used only once. They cannot be transferred or sold to others.

Only Sinopec and China National Petroleum Corporation as well as their authorised petrol stations can sell petrol on the go.

They must keep records of each sale of petrol in a bottle or other types of containers.

Motorists without car registration plates and driving licences are prohibited from filling at petrol stations while motorcyclists will have to produce their licence to do so.

On June 7 afternoon, a Bus Rapid Transit heading towards the Jinshan and Caitang bus stops burst into flames on an elevated road.

The fire caused 47 deaths and injury to 34 others.

DNA tests of the 47 victims were completed on June 10 and the names of 22 males and 25 females were released the following day.

Police said Xiamen native Chen Shuizong, 60, blew up the bus using about 10l of petrol to vent his anger over his life and society.

He was among those who died in the fire.

According to an in-depth report by Legal Daily on what went through Chen’s mind in the last moments of his life, Chen had planned the suicide attack for some time since his life took a turn for the worse.

In the early 1990s, Chen opened a stall outside his house selling dumplings with sweet filling.

In 1994, he married his wife and enjoyed brisk business until the closure of his stall two years later because he operated it without a business licence.

The authorities then cracked down on other stalls where he was selling fried rice cakes to make ends meet.

In 2005, he managed to get a subsidy of 700 to 800 yuan (RM343 to RM392) from the government for being a low-income earner.

As his daughter grew up and the cost of running a family increased, he and his wife started to work again, Chen’s sister Xiangping told the daily.

Chen then changed several jobs working as security guard and earned up to 2,000 yuan (RM980).

But none of the jobs lasted for a year.

After the government stopped giving him the low-income subsidy, he applied for affordable rent housing but he had yet to wait for his turn for the draw of such units.

The daily reported that Chen was involved in a dispute with his company last year.

Chen claimed that the company did not contribute to his social insurance as promised in a labour contract signed between both parties.

Following an argument with his supervisor over car parking fee, Chen had to leave the company in May last year.

He asked for the payment of his May salary of 1,488 yuan (RM709), dismissal compensation of 1,200 yuan (RM588), his April and May social insurance contributions and another 1,200 yuan as unemployment compensation.

Both parties eventually settled for a 1,800 yuan (RM882) compensation in the labour arbitration.

Three months ago, the jobless Chen applied for an old age insurance scheme eligible for men aged 60 and above and women above 55.

But his application was not successful as he did not meet the age requirement, though Chen argued that he was actually born in 1952 and not 1954 as stated in his identification card.

A medical report found in his house showed that Chen suffered from lung disease.

His sister-in-law Ling Qiong said Chen’s routine involved reading books and cooking medicine prescribed for himself.

The growing misery in his life made him opt for the path to end it all. At about 4pm on June 5, he bought petrol from a petrol station and had it stored in a drum in his house.

The following day he posted his plight of applying for the old age insurance scheme on his microblog and wrote his last words on a piece of paper for his wife and daughter.

The afternoon before the incident, Chen helped Xiangping to buy a TV signal dish before pushing a trolley with a woven bag containing petrol from his home to the Jinshan bus stop at about 4pm.

Surveillance TV images showed that Chen boarded the bus and lit up the woven bag in his hands causing the explosion on the bus.

Not only has the incident prompted Xiamen authorities to introduce stricter regulations on the purchase of petrol but also improve the safety of public transportation.

Many buses have been installed with glass-breaking devices and a minimum of three hammers to allow passengers to break the bus window in the event of an emergency.

Enforcement officers have been deployed to patrol bus terminals and conduct checks on baggage carried by passengers.