Public servants punished for collapse

Forty-one public servants have been punished for a deadly collapse that claimed 29 lives at a rural restaurant in Shanxi province, the province's emergency management department said.

Aside from administrative punishment and disciplinary penalties, some officials were summoned, according to a news release issued by the department on Monday.

According to the Communist Party of China Constitution, there are five forms of disciplinary action for Party members: warning, severe warning, removal from a position within the Party, probation within the Party and expulsion from the Party.

The department didn't specify the details of the punishments.

The accident occurred on Aug 29 last year when family members and fellow villagers attended a birthday banquet for an 80-year-old man surnamed Li in Chenzhuang village, Xiangfen county.

It also injured 28 people and caused direct economic losses of about 11.6 million yuan ($1.8 million).

Frequent, unauthorized building expansion by unqualified contractors that resulted in a weight exceeding the building's carrying capacity, causing a pillar to break, and directly caused the collapse, the release said, adding that a downpour before the accident may also have been a factor.

The restaurant was constructed without approval from local authorities. Its owners also ignored punishment from the local land resources authorities and a decision by a local court, the release said without elaborating.

It added that the owner of the restaurant was in criminal custody, the restaurant had been ordered to clear farmland it illegally occupied and it had also been fined. The amount of the fine was not disclosed.

The department also denounced the local authorities for dereliction of duty.

They failed to address the restaurant's illegal, long-term operation, despite having rolled out a series of campaigns targeting the illegal occupation of land, the release said.

The restaurant's owner illegally expanded the building eight times, changing the single-story building into a two-story structure with some makeshift rooms over its roof, according to a previous news release from the Ministry of Emergency Management.