28 punished for building collapse that killed 6

GUANGZHOU - Twenty-eight people found responsible for a building collapse that killed six and injured seven others in South China last November have been punished, authorities said on Sunday.

Several government officials, including Zheng Xinqin, deputy governor of Chengqu district of Shanwei city, Guangdong province, and Zhuo Hongzuan, director of the district's Urban and Rural Construction Bureau, were given punishment ranging from disciplinary warning to recording a serious demerit.

Others, including the construction bureau's deputy director Peng Youyi, had been put in forensic investigations.

A building under construction in Shanwei City partly collapsed on November 22, 2011, burying a total of 13 people. Six died and seven others were injured in the accident. The building was being built as a training center of a bank, and the collapse happened from the fourth story to the ninth story.

According to an investigation report on the collapse released by the Shanwei municipal government on Friday, defects in the design and construction of the supporting system of the building were to blame for the collapse.

The collapse caused a direct economic loss of 10 million yuan ($1.59 million), the report said.