China school head held over deaths

Police in northern China have arrested four school officials following the deaths of 21 children, killed after a guardrail on a stairway gave way.

More than 50 other students were also injured in Monday's accident at a middle school in the city of Fengzhen, Inner Mongolia.

[The school principal] asked the vice-principal, who was with him, to take a look at the school and continued drinking

Police spokesman Chen Jiangming

Police and the official Xinhua news agency said that one of those arrested - the school principal, Fan Qi - was drinking at a restaurant at the time of the accident, even though he was supposed to be on duty.

Inner Mongolia police spokesman Chen Jiangming also said that most of the lighting in the stairwell had not been working before the accident, and that the principal had ignored teachers' complaints.

Most of the dead were reported to have died from asphyxiation as students - not realising that the guardrail in the unlit stairwell had collapsed - piled on top of those who had already fallen.

Delinquency charges

The police spokesman said the principal had been unmoved by the news.

"After receiving a phone call telling him about the accident, he asked the vice-principal, who was with him, to take a look at the school and continued drinking," Mr Chen told the Reuters news agency.

He said the school's vice-principal and its political and security chiefs had also been arrested for "delinquency leading to severe accidents".

Reuters said at least one other person, a construction company boss, was in police custody, and that the school's former principal and a government inspection chief had also been held for questioning.

Earlier news reports suggested that poor workmanship had played a role in the accident, but officials said that had not been verified.

The accident happened as hundreds of students were rushing out of the school at the end of classes on Monday evening.

Overcrowded

Officials said the dead included 14 girls, aged between 12 and 15.

The school rented the first floor of its building to shops and the other two floors were crowded with offices, classrooms and dormitories.

Xinhua said the school was designed for 800 students, but some 1,500 pupils were enrolled.

The incident was a further reminder of China's often poor safety standards.

In December 2000, China's worst fire for several years killed more than 300 young people trapped in a dance hall in the central city of Luoyang.