China investigates 3 more officials over Hunan fireworks factory explosion that killed 37

The provincial discipline inspection commission announced on Thursday that three senior figures within the emergency management system were under investigation for “serious violations of discipline and law”.

The officials include Lei Min, deputy director of the safety production emergency rescue command centre of the Hunan provincial department of emergency management; Zhong Caifa, former deputy director of the Changsha municipal emergency management bureau; and Yang Hai, the deputy party chief and director of the Liuyang municipal emergency management bureau.

The probes come less than a week after a similar hammer fell on Liuyang’s local administration.

On June 5, municipal watchdogs announced simultaneous probes into Li Xiang, former vice-mayor of Liuyang; Gao Chengjian, a former deputy captain of the Liuyang police patrol brigade; and Liu Yongqiang, a local emergency management official in Liuyang’s Guandu Town.

The rapid series of detentions forms an aggressive accountability chain linked directly to the severe explosion at the Huasheng Fireworks Manufacturing and Display Company in Liuyang, which falls under the jurisdiction of Changsha.

In addition to the 37 killed in the blast, which tore through the facility on the afternoon of May 4, some 51 people were admitted to hospital and one person is still missing.