Officials punished over fatal flood

Two deputy mayors of Zhuhai, Guangdong province, have been held accountable for the city's Shijingshan tunnel flooding accident in July that caused the deaths of 14 workers, according to a statement released by the local Zhuhai Commission for Discipline Inspection on Tuesday.

Zhang Yisheng, vice-mayor of Zhuhai, was given an administrative warning, while another deputy mayor, Hu Xintian, was given an admonition, the statement said.

Zhang and Hu were among 27 Party and government officials and company executives disciplined and punished over the accident.

Other major Party and government officials punished include Yang Liuqing, director of the United Front Work Department of Xiangzhou district, Gu Shengjie, director of Zhuhai Center of Highway Affairs, and his deputy Xu Wei, vice-director of the center.

Yang was given an admonition, Gu was given an inner-party warning and administrative demerit recording punishment, while Xu was given serious warnings within the party and record major demerits in government affairs.

Peng Su, director of Zhuhai Bureau of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, was given an administrative warning. Lv Zhiqi, deputy director of Zhuhai Bureau of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, was given a warning within the party.

The punishments were given for the officials' failure to function and neglect of duty, it said.

Shijingshan tunnel, part of the southern section of the Zhuhai Xingye Expressway, flooded at about 3:30 am on July 15 , trapping construction workers inside.

All were found dead when rescuers dug out the tunnel a week later.