Suspected arsonist in Taiwan hospital fire detained

An elderly man has been taken into custody for allegedly starting a fire in a hospital in southern Taiwan that killed 12 people and injured 60, a prosecutor said Wednesday. The 67-year-old man, surnamed Lin and also a patient at the hospital, said he lit tissue papers and threw them into a storage room full of clothes on Tuesday, said prosecutor Tseng Chao-kai. Lin said he was feeling upset because he had been suffering from serious chronic illness, the prosecutor said. He had been detained since midnight. Tseng said he was considered a flight risk and apparently tried to destroy evidence. Fire officials have said that the blaze possibly started in a storage room on the second floor of the five-floor building mainly housing bed-ridden seniors.