Report Into Safety in China’s Mines Attacks Those at the Top

The Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) has found that dereliction of duty and abuse of authority to be the root cause behind a number of incidents.

After investigations into nine major blasts in 2005, each with a death toll of more than 30, the SPP found six involved official malfeasance and held 46 government officers responsible, according to the report.

It attributed the main cause of these accidents to violation of safety rules in which coal mine owners ordered excessive operation regardless of production limits.

"Such illegal operations are closely linked with criminal negligence of government officials in carrying out supervision duties," said a spokesman with the SPP's anti-malfeasance bureau.

"In many cases, malfeasance is the result of corruption, which in turn, aids and abets such official negligence."

4,746 people were killed as the result of coal mining accidents in China in 2006, according to figures from the State Administration of Work Safety.