The accident that occurred on July 2 at the Jiajiabao Coal Mine in Ningwu County in north China's Shanxi Province killed 36 and injured 11, a State Council investigation team announced on Friday.

It said direct economic losses in the accident reached 11.85 million yuan (US$1.46 million).

The accident was blamed on "illegal construction, illegal production and weak supervision." Among the prosecuted were a deputy Party secretary, a deputy magistrate and several lower-level government officials of the county, as well as the mine's managers.

The mine's managers hid the bodies of 17 dead miners after the gas explosion, underreporting the accident's death toll, investigators found.

(Xinhua News Agency September 10, 2005)