The nationwide hunt for notorious student killer Ma Jiajue has led to an unintended, but welcome, consequence -- the arrest of two corrupt bankers from southwest China's Yunnan Province who were caught by police in northeast China's Liaoning Province, a local newspaper reported Sunday.

Luo Sixin and Cui Junyi, two policemen attached to the Dabao Township Police Station in Liaoning's Fengcheng City, were informed by a hotel boss on March 6 that one of two men from south China looked very much like Ma Jiajue.

And when they were taken to the police station, Wu Ankun, 35, director of Daxing Township Credit Cooperative in Yunnan's Yongshan County, and his accountant, 34-year-old Yun Song, confessed that they were on the run after embezzling public funds of 1.9 million yuan (US$220,000).

Wu and Yun had 390,000 yuan (US$47,100) in cash on them when they were caught.

They even tried to bribe their way out but Luo and Cui refused their offer, Shenyang Jinbao Newspaper reported.

According to the suspects, they were constantly on the move to avoid being caught:

On March 1, they fled to Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province. The next day, they flew to Shanghai.

On March 3 -- not daring to stay in the eastern metropolis for long -- they took a flight to east China's Shandong Province

Two days later, they took a taxi to Yantai, a coastal city of Shandong Province.

And on March 6, after seeing the notice for the arrest of Ma Jiajue in Yantai, they went to Dalian, Liaoning Province.

But they never imagined they would be arrested in Fengcheng, a place they believed was safe as it is in a mountainous area near the country's border, the report said.

The 1.9 million yuan (US$220,000) embezzled was used by the two to buy lottery tickets over a long time.

Ma Jiajue, a 23-year-old student at Kunming-based Yunnan University, is suspected of killing four roommates on February 23 and is at large.

The Ministry of Public Security has issued a nationwide arrest warrant and offered a reward of 200,000 yuan (US$24,200) to any person who provides information leading to Ma's arrest.

(China Daily March 15, 2004)