China makes 5 more arrests over deadly Shenzhen landslide: Xinhua

SHANGHAI - Chinese police have arrested five more officials of a company involved in a deadly landslide that buried 77 people last month, state news agency Xinhua said, taking the tally of arrests to 16.

The government has blamed breaches of construction safety rules for the disaster in the southern city of Shenzhen on Dec. 20, when a dump overflowed and destroyed 33 buildings.

A State Council investigation said it was caused by work safety mismanagement, rather than geological causes.

Eleven people, including a legal representative and a deputy manager of Shenzhen Yixianglong Investment Development, which ran the dump, and officials responsible for supervising it, were arrested this month.

All 16 have been charged with negligence, Xinhua said on Friday, citing a Shenzhen prosecutor.

Calls to Shenzhen Yixianglong Investment Development were unanswered.

The disaster is the latest accident to raise questions about China's industrial safety standards and lack of oversight over years of breakneck economic growth.