China investigates 3 more officials over Hunan fireworks factory explosion that killed 37

Announcement comes as Beijing launches central workplace safety inspections as part of national campaign

The provincial discipline inspection commission announced on Thursday that three senior figures within the emergency management system were under investigation for “serious violations of discipline and law”.

The officials are Lei Min, deputy director of the safety production emergency rescue command centre of Hunan’s emergency management department; Zhong Caifa, former deputy director of Changsha’s emergency management bureau; and Yang Hai, the deputy Communist Party chief and director of the Liuyang emergency management bureau.

The investigations come less than a week after a similar hammer fell on Liuyang’s administration.

On June 5, municipal watchdogs announced simultaneous inquiries into Li Xiang, former vice-mayor of Liuyang; Gao Chengjian, a former deputy captain of the Liuyang police patrol brigade; and Liu Yongqiang, an emergency management official in Liuyang’s Guandu township.

The rapid series of detentions forms an aggressive accountability chain linked directly to the explosion at the Huasheng Fireworks Manufacturing and Display Company in Liuyang, which falls under the jurisdiction of Changsha.

In addition to the 37 killed in the blast on May 4, some 51 people were admitted to hospital and one person remains missing.