Photo: CFP

Hebei authorities have released an investigation report into a flooding accident at an iron mine in Tangshan, which showed that local officials concealed the truth about the accident, according to The Paper on Thursday.

The iron mine wasn't operating according to the design and there was failure to observe the standard regulations in the roadway excavation and other areas, according to the report. The accident killed 14 people and one person went missing in Taipingzhai town, Qianxi county in Tangshan, North China's Hebei Province in September 2022, according to the Tangshan city government. 

Li Wei, the person in charge of the mine, reported to the then leaders of Taipingzhai town that 15 people were trapped in the mine. The situation was reported to the county authorities including Cai Zongjian, then Party chief of Qianxi county, and Shi Jingman, then governor of Qianxi county, according to the report.

However, the county officials decided to conceal the real situation and made false reports on September 3, saying that only two miners were trapped in the mine, according to the investigation. 

On September 6, the county officials asked staff to hide the bodies of the deceased, and then they asked a search team to go down the mine but not to do a proper search and to create a false report. In the early hours of September 9, 12 bodies were removed, said the report.

However, the search team found another body on September 10, which was not one of the two trapped people that had been reported previously, leading the provincial authorities to double check the number of trapped people.

Under the instructions of the county officials, relevant personnel destroyed monitoring equipment and forged mine entry and exit records, name lists of employees and other information, according to the report.

The 20 people involved in the false reporting, including the person in charge of the mine and local officials, have had compulsory measures taken against them by the police. Cong Zijian, the legal representative of the mine, is also being pursued by the public security authorities. Some county officials have also been placed under investigation for leading or participating in the false reports.

Hebei province set up a working group to investigate the accident and vowed to investigate issues such as false reports.

Global Times - The Paper