China's newspapers and major Internet media are devoting pages to bears in Beijing Zoo suffering a mixture of sulfuric acid and caustic soda poured by the detained suspect, a student of Qinghua University.
Many readers said that they were puzzled at the suspect' action and wonder why an elite university student would go out of his way to harm rare animals.
Liu Haiyang, the autism student who has few friends, said he did not expect that he would commit such a crime. "I'm regretted now," he said.
A spokesman with the police station where Liu is in custody said that it is hard to believe that a typical bookish student wearing glasses would carry out such a cruel assault.
The spokesman said that Liu looked very calm during interrogation. Liu has kept to his explanation that he wanted to test whether bears are really dim or not.
Liu, at age of 21, said that he has become loving animals sincehe was a child.
"I liked cute animals such as chickens and birds. Mom and I hadraised a parrot," he said during the custody.
Liu, majoring in electromechanical engineering, told police that he has never been to zoos in his childhood when he was only accompanied by his divorced mother.
Having passed the graduate exam, the university senior said he is not interested in his major at all and he only loves biology. He spent time reading books on biology and chemistry and never touched upon any novels.
The young suspect said he has let down his mother struggling topay for his expensive tuition in university. "I'm sorry that I've let my university down," he added.
Sources with the police station said that no final judgment hasbeen made so far.
(Xinhua News Agency February 27, 2002)
