China's top legislature adopted a decision Saturday to remove a former Party secretary of a coal production city from his post as deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC), the top legislature, for his role in a mine accident that caused 277 deaths last year,

Xia Zhengui, 53, former secretary of the Linfen City Committee of the Communist Party of China in northern Shanxi Province, was suspended from office following investigations into a massive landslide triggered by the collapse of a unlicensed iron ore tailing pond on Sept. 8 in Xiangfen County of Linfen.

The landslide buried an outdoor market near a village of more than 1,000 residents, killing 277 people and injuring 33.

The Shanxi provincial legislature made the decision on June 4 and submitted it to the top legislature to the ninth session of the 11th NPC Standing Committee which closed its six-day, bi-monthly meeting on Saturday.

This accident also led to the resignation of Shanxi Governor Meng Xuenong and the dismissal of Zhang Jianmin, vice governor of Shanxi.

Source: Xinhua