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BEIJING: Authorities in China have promised to investigate the collapse of a school in a quake-hit area that left more than 1,300 children and teachers dead or missing, state media reported on Monday.
The news comes after the government has vowed to punish anyone responsible for substandard construction standards at schools, amid fury over the large number of children killed in collapsed school buildings in the quake.
In Mianyang city, more than 1,300 of the Beichuan Middle School's 2,900 students and teachers were dead or missing after the buildings collapsed, the Xinhua news agency said.
"We will preserve all the buildings, whether collapsed or not, for experts to investigate," Zuo Daifu, Mianyang deputy mayor, was quoted as saying by Xinhua. "The builders will be held responsible if the building work is found to be shoddy."
The 8.0 magnitude quake that hit southwest Sichuan province left at least 14,538 dead and 3,397 missing in Beichuan County, where Mianyang is located, Xinhua said.
But one of the most horrifying scenes was that of Beichuan Middle School, which collapsed several seconds after the quake hit. Xinhua said the school took five years to build.
Several parents have staged rare protests, demanding justice over shoddy school construction that they say led to their children's deaths.
"The ministry ordered the country's educational sector to strictly check school constructions, especially in disaster areas and regions susceptible to quakes," a Ministry of Education spokesman was quoted by Xinhua as saying.
He said an official of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development had admitted that "substandard buildings cannot be excluded" from factors that led to extensive collapses.
More than 12,300 schools in Sichuan - nearly 41 percent of those in the province - have been damaged, according to state media.
The overall death toll from the earthquake has risen to 65,080, with 23,150 missing. - AFP/de
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