The ruins of the "King of the Dancers" club in Longgang District after the fire at night last weekend.

Police detained a shareholder of a nightclub yesterday in Shenzhen where a fire killed 43 people and injured 88 others on Saturday, the city government said at a news conference in Guangdong Province.

Zhang Wei, 43, a shareholder at King of the Dancers Club, works for the Anti-smuggling Customs Bureau in Shenzhen and is the former husband of Wang Jing, the legal representative of the unlicensed club. She turned herself in to police on Sunday.

So far police have detained 14 people in connection with the fire. This includes the general manager, vice general manager, safety officer, technician and performers.

Wang Shuaiwen, 30, was also detained yesterday, Nanfang Daily reported today. Wang was one of the club's fireworks performers.

A police investigation found that the fire started when fireworks set off during a performance ignited some flammable material in the ceiling.

The report said Zhang is an investigative officer with the customs bureau. He moved to the bureau from the Public Security Bureau in Shenzhen's Longgang District in March 2002, the report said.

The newspaper learned from one of the club's waiters that Zhang and Wang are King of the Dancers Club's two biggest shareholders. The waiter said that Zhang was at the club often and would drink wine with clients while his ex-wife Wang was rarely there.

Forty-one of 43 bodies have been identified thus far five of whom were from the neighboring city of Hong Kong.

(Shanghai Daily September 23, 2008)