Environmental inspections catch hundreds of officials

Dereliction of duty blamed for many of the violations, national watchdog says

More than 900 officials have been held to account for violations that were found in a central environmental inspection last year, the country's top pollution watchdog said on Thursday.

The officials were involved in 92 violations in seven provincial regions, including Shanxi and Hunan provinces and Tianjin municipality, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment said in a statement released to the media.