Four county-level officials from north China's Shanxi Province have been dismissed from their posts in the Party in the wake of three coal mine accidents that claimed 65 lives, the provincial government said yesterday.

The Communist Party of China Committee of Taiyuan, the provincial capital, has removed Wang Qinghe from the post of deputy secretary of the CPC Committee of Wangbolin District in Taiyuan. Ning Keqiang lost his membership in the district CPC committee following two mine accidents that left 21 miners dead in late October and early this month.

The Jinzhong City CPC Committee has removed Gong Qi from the post of deputy secretary of the CPC Committee of Lingshi County and Feng Kaicheng was deprived of his membership of the county CPC committee for a coal mine fire that claimed 34 lives this month.

The Shanxi Provincial CPC Committee has also suggested that the four people should be removed from their administrative posts, a spokesman for the provincial government said yesterday.

Wang is the acting head of Wangbolin District and Ning is Wang's deputy. Gong is the head of Lingshi County government and Feng is the deputy.

Local governments are responsible for managing and supervising coal mining businesses and other production activities in areas under their jurisdiction, according to the spokesman.

The four people will face further punishments once investigations into the three accidents are concluded, the spokesman said.

An explosive blast that occurred in the Pagou Coal Mine in Taiyuan's Wangbolin District on October 24 left 11 miners dead. Preliminary investigations show the mine was operating illegally because its production safety and coal mining certificates expired at the end of December last year.

A coal mine in Jijiagou Village, also based in Wangbolin District, was flooded on November 7, killing 10 miners. The owner of the coal mine ran away after the flooding. Investigators said that the coal mine was operating illegally without a production permit.

A fatal fire occurred in the Nanshan Coal Mine in Lingshi County on November 12, claiming 34 lives. The production license of the Nanshan Coal Mine expired at the end of last year and rescuers found it had neither a gas monitoring system nor a life-saving appliance in the shaft. The mine contractor escaped after the accident and is still at large.

This is the second time within six months that county-level officials have been dismissed for fatal coal mine accidents in Shanxi Province.

The Standing Committee of the Zuoyun County People's Congress approved resignations filed by Zhang Mingsheng, former head of the county government, and his deputy Shi Lu, who was in charge of local coal production, in June.