A dynamite explosion in a north China village killed 20 primary schoolchildren when their classroom collapsed on top of them, state media said today.
The dynamite, stored illegally in a coal mine owner's house in Puxian county, Shanxi province, buried the children and some of their teachers at the nearby school, the Beijing Newssaid.
The mine owner was also killed in the blast.
Explosives or fireworks manufactured and stored illegally kill hundreds each year in China's rural areas.
An official with the county government in coal-rich Puxian said many private coal mine owners possessed large quantities of explosives. "But it is illegal to keep the explosives at home," he said.
New York-based rights group Human Rights in China reported another grisly breach of work-place safety in northern Hebei province where five child factory workers died from asphyxiation caused by a charcoal heater, two apparently inside coffins.
"Sources say that without checking if the girls were actually dead, [the factory owner] put them into coffins for cremation, with the result that two of the girls who were apparently still alive died of asphyxiation," the group said in a statement.