BEIJING - The owner of a kindergarten in Northwest China's Gansu province, who illegally removed all seats in a school bus so that the vehicle could take in more children, has been arrested, local prosecutors said on Sunday.

Twenty-one people, including 19 preschoolers and two adults, died when the nine-seater school bus illegally carrying 64 people crashed head-on with a coal truck in Yulinzi township, Zhengning county in Qingyang city, on Wednesday. Another 43 were injured.

The bus belonged to Little Doctor Kindergarten in Zhengning. Li Jungang, head of the kindergarten, was arrested under the suspicion of criminal traffic offense as he illegally removed all seats in the van, the county's procuratorate said on Sunday.