A special probe team investigating the landslide in Shenzhen concluded that the accident was caused by safety rule violations, and not by natural causes, as the local government apologized to victims during a news conference on Friday, Dec. 25, China Daily reported.
The landslide, which occurred on Sunday, Dec. 20, had buried or damaged 33 buildings in Shenzhen's Guangming New District and destroyed a major gas pipeline in a nearby region, cutting off the gas supply to neighboring Hong Kong.
According to the report, 75 people remain missing as of Friday, Dec. 25, and one survivor had been rescued while four bodies had been found on Wednesday morning, Dec. 23.
"The special investigation team of the State Council has determined that the landslide was the result of the collapse of a mountain of construction waste, not of the mountainside, which means that this was a safety accident instead of a natural disaster," Ma Xingrui, Party chief of Shenzhen, said during the news conference.
"On behalf of the city Party committee and the city government, I strongly support the findings of the investigation team, and I promise that we will actively cooperate with further investigations," Ma added.
Ma said the local government will continue with the investigation to determine who is responsible and will apologize to all victims.
An earlier report by the Global Times said that the construction waste was piled 100 meters high before the accident took place. The report said the site, one of eight temporary construction waste storage sites in Shenzhen, was managed by the Shenzhen LuWei Property Management Co. .
An Agence France-Presse report said that the Guangming New District government was aware of the improper piling of soil at the storage site and the local government had been urged to act on it as early as July.
On July 10, officials said in an announcement that they have ordered the Hongao Construction Waste Dump to "speed up" work to bring its operations into line as work at the site was not being performed according to approved plans, the report added.