The head of Xingtai County in Hebei Province has resigned following a recent mine accident that left 33 people dead and four others missing, the local government said Thursday.

Tian Derong, then head of Xingtai and also vice secretary of the Xingtai County Committee of the Communist Party of China, submitted his application for resignation last Saturday, which was approved the same day, according to the municipal government of Xingtai, the superior authority of the county.

The deputy head of the county, the director and a deputy director of the Xingtai Municipal Safety Production Bureau have also resigned, the government said.

They were accused of severe dereliction of duty, it added.

At 7:40 PM on November 6, a gypsum mine collapsed in Shangwang village of the country, damaging two other gypsum mines nearby, toppling a two-story building and leaving cracks on the ground.

So far 33 bodies of the victims have been recovered, and the four remain missing.

(Xinhua News Agency December 16, 2005)