China's cabinet forms team to probe restaurant blast

The State Council, the country's cabinet, has established a team to investigate a recent deadly explosion in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, the Ministry of Emergency Management said in a media release on Sunday.

Led by the ministry, the team consists of officials from five national government bodies, including the ministries of public security and commerce, and Ningxia government, the release said. It is headed by Song Yuanming, vice-minister of emergency management.

The blast happened at around 8:40 pm in a barbecue restaurant in Xingqing district in Ningxia capital city Yinchuan due to a leakage of liquefied petroleum gas. It left 31 dead and another seven injured, according to local authorities.

The release said the investigation team held its first meeting in Yinchuan on Sunday morning.

The team has vowed that it will not wrap up its work unless the cause of the accident is clearly figured out, all people that bear responsibility are punished and all violations are rectified, it stressed.

A bitter lesson should be drawn from the blast, it added. And measures should be rolled out immediately to rule out safety hazards exposed in the accident to prevent similar accidents from happening.