YINCHUAN - An arsonist convicted of setting a bus on fire in northwest China in January in an attack that killed 18 people was sentenced to death by a local court on Sunday.

Ma Yongping set a bus on fire using a bottle of gasoline on Jan. 5, motivated by his anger over a personal dispute, according to the Yinchuan Municipal Intermediate People's Court in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

The fire, which quickly burned the bus into an empty shell, also injured 32 others.

Ma appealed to the court on Sunday.