The three people from Xinjiang who set themselves on fire in downtown Beijing last month took the extreme action after their "unreasonable demands" were refused, a senior official said here Friday.

Nur Bekri, chairman of the Xinjiang regional government, said that the three, from the same family, had been involved in a dispute with the local government over home demolition to make way for a school.

However, the family were demanding too much, including decent jobs and an open apology from the local government, although they had been fully compensated in line with regulations, the official said.

The three people have left Beijing for Xinjiang by plane on March 1, the mayor of Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang, said. The Urumqi government paid the first-class air tickets for them.

The family including a couple, a son and a daughter. Three of them were physically or mentally disabled, according to the officials, who made the remarks on the sidelines of the ongoing session of the National People's Congress (NPC), or the parliament.

The couple and their son set fire to themselves inside a car on Feb. 25 at the southern end of Wangfujing avenue in downtown Beijing. The husband, 59, and the wife, 58, were badly injured and rushed to the Beijing Jishuitan Hospital that specializes in burn injuries.

Source: Xinhua