Probe into deadly landslide

2008-10-06 12:03

Beijing - Chinese authorities launched an investigation on Monday into an industrial landslide that buried a village in northern China, amid claims that officials initially downplayed the scale of the tragedy, a state news agency reported.

The August 1 landslide was triggered when an overloaded waste dump at an iron mine toppled onto the village of Sigou in the province of Shanxi, killing 44 people, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Local authorities at first tried to hide the severity of the disaster in which more than 800 000 cubic metres of rock and iron ore waste swamped the village, Xinhua said.

A 49-member team under the State Council, China's Cabinet, has been dispatched to Shanxi to further investigate the accident, Xinhua said.

Another mining dump collapsed in Shanxi last month, killing more than 260 people when it inundated a village of 1 300 residents in a torrent of mud and industrial mining waste. The governor of Shanxi resigned over the disaster and his deputy was fired.

Two weeks after the August landslide the local government said only 11 people had died, but families and residents said at least 30 others had been trapped under the deluge, Xinhua said.

Wang Dexue, deputy director of the government's work safety administration, blamed the landslide on inadequate safety measures and overloading of the dump, the report said.

"Cracks were seen on the dump in April but no action was taken to remedy the situation or to evacuate the villagers," Wang was quoted as saying. Wang will lead the investigation team, Xinhua said.

The disaster occurred a week before Beijing hosted the Olympic Games, an event that earned China widespread praise but failed to eliminate the country's systemic weaknesses, including its failure to enforce protective measures in China's notoriously dangerous mining industry.

Under Chinese law, mine dumps must be at least 500m from residential areas and should have embankments or walls to prevent landslides, but the dump near Sigou had none, Xinhua said.

- AP