Subway arson suspect admits to crime (Update6)

Santo Domingo.- Franquelis Holguín Medina, 21, the main suspect in the arson in a subway car carrying dozens commuters, admitted to the crime, National Police chief Manuel Castro announced Wednesday.

File. Subway management office (OPRET) deputy director Leonel Carrasco on Monday said he doesn’t rule out that the arson by a passenger that hurt more than 35 people was a terrorist act

"I don’t rule anything, it’s the first time this happens to us in six years and I don’t rule out any possibility," the official said a press conference.

He said the arson suspect is still on the loose but the police seek to identify the person by looking at security videos. “The Metro is a safe transportation system whose operation has moved 190 million passengers in six years.”

The attack occured 8am between the Mauricio Báez and Horacio Vásquez stations along V Centenario Av.

FILE. At least 11 people have been taken to a hospital with burns sustained Monday when a passenger in one of the trains of Santo Domingo’s subway set fire to a backpack.

Merlin De León and Francisco Alberto Gonzalez were taken in critical condition to the burn unit at Luis Eduardo Aybar Hospital, the latter with burns over 70 percent of his body.

The rest of the injured were taken to the emergency room with minor burns.

The firefighters and police agents responded to the 911 call and remain at the scene in the Mauricio Báez station of the Subway’s Line 2.