A team of official discipline inspectors were sent to investigate the devastating explosion at a firecracker storehouse in central China's Henan Province, which killed 36 people and injured 48 others during the Spring Festival holiday.

"The inspectors will try to find out whether there was dereliction of duty or mismanagement of civil servants and supervision personnel concerned," said Li Yang, head of the Henan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China, who led the team.

Initial investigation showed that the blast was triggered by kids' mischief. Three kids under the age of 14 threw a burning firecracker through a ventilation intake into a firework storehouse belonging to the firework plant in Lilin Village of Linqi Township in Linzhou City on Jan. 29.

The blast set off a series of explosions in neighboring storehouses, which led to the heavy casualties.

So far, four executive members of the plant were under criminal detention and the three kids were also taken into custody.

The initial investigation found that some combustible goods in the storehouses were purchased through illegal channels, and the deposit also violated the concerned regulations on combustible goods.

Source: Xinhua