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August 31, 2015

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Back to school after Tianjin’s deadly blasts

Source: AP | August 31, 2015, Monday | Print Edition

MORE than 300 grade schools in Tianjin will start the autumn semester on time despite the deadly warehouse explosion earlier this month, the district government in the Binhai New Area said yesterday.

All the schools in the district had completed registration work for classes to start today, and students affected by the disaster will return to the classroom, officials said.

The August 12 explosions at a warehouse storing dangerous chemicals killed at least 150 people and left 23 others missing. The dead include 92 firefighters and 10 policemen. Among those still missing are 12 firefighters and a policeman, Xinhua news agency reported.

A total of 367 people remain in hospital, including 20 in critical or serious condition.

It was one of China’s worst industrial accidents in years.

The tragedy exposed the country’s lax enforcement of work safety regulations and revealed widespread dereliction of duty across government agencies. The warehouse was too close to homes and stored too much hazardous material.

At least 11 government officials — from agencies overseeing transport, port operations, workplace safety, planning and land resources, and customs — have been detained and face charges of dereliction of duty and abuse of power.

China’s top prosecuting office said the officials should not have issued the warehouse a permit to handle hazardous material and that they failed to regulate operations at the warehouse.

Police have also detained 12 executives and employees of the company running the warehouse as part of their investigation, and are also looking into a company suspected of providing bogus safety assessments.

The local government said that schools damaged by the explosions had been repaired in time for the new semester.

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