SHENZHEN, China, Dec. 28 (UPI) — The Chinese official who was in charge of the waste site where a massive landslide collapsed buildings and killed at least four people over a week ago killed himself Monday, local police said.
The man, identified by a magazine as Xu Yuan’an, the former head of the Urban District Administrative Enforcement Bureau in the city, jumped from a building Sunday night, police said.
Xu is the third Chinese official this year to kill himself after an industrial disaster.
Though no people or organizations have been blamed and neither state media nor local police said Xu was directly responsible for approving the building of the dump, he was director in July when the bureau approved the dump made of mud and various construction waste.
On Dec. 22, the waste pile created a massive 94-acre landslide the destroyed 33 buildings and left dozens missing. Rescue crews have managed to save a 21-year-old local worker, but at least four bodies have been recovered and at least 70 people are still missing.
“Those responsible for the incident will be seriously punished in accordance with laws and regulations,” state investigators said last week. The current investigation points to safety violations as the cause of the landslide.
Earlier this year, an official in Tianjin jumped to his death after a chemical explosion killed 173 people, and over the weekend the mine owner where a rockfall trapped miners jumped down the shaft.
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