Police in Longchang county, Sichuan province, have arrested two suspects who were allegedly involved in the killing of a taxi driver 16 years ago, Western China Metropolis Daily reported.

On the early morning of May 26, 1997, a taxi driver surnamed Yu drove two passengers to a remote area in Yunding from the county seat because the duo wanted to rob him of his taxi, according to the report.

Yu escaped to a nearby farmhouse and knocked at the door repeatedly while shouting for help. Intimidated, the two elderly residents of the house did not dare to open the door. The two men arrived and killed him.

Because of a broken axle, the car could not move, and the two men abandoned it and fled.

Recently, police found Luo Yuanqing, one of the suspects now aged 39, had stayed in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region as a migrant worker, and his accomplice Yang Fengming, now 36, was running a teahouse in Longchang.

According to police, Luo and Yang confessed that they badly needed money and decided to rob a driver of his taxi.

They targeted Yu because they had seen him waiting to pick up passengers in his new taxi outside the old county bureau of agriculture.

Luo and Yang told police that they had Yu drive them to the remote area of Yunding and then killed him with two daggers they had purchased from a farm tool shop.