A former company executive has been sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve and nine other company and public officials will be jailed for three to five years for their involvement in a factory explosion that killed 36 in January.

Shen Xishuan, legal representative of Lilin Firecrackers Company Ltd. in Linqi Town, Linzhou City in Henan Province, was sentenced to death at the Intermediate People's Court of Anyang City with a two-year reprieve for illegally trading explosives.

Three other company executives, Shen Cunsheng, Shen Yongjiang and Zhang Hongsheng will be jailed for terms of three to five years for the same crime.

Three former officials with the Linzhou Work Safety Administration, Han Qingde, Cui Zhongming and Li Lin, former officials with Linqi Town government Ma Linjiang and Wang Chengsong, and a Linzhou Public Security Bureau official were jailed for three to four years for negligence.

The explosion happened in a storehouse of the factory on Jan. 29, the first day of the year according to the Lunar Calendar. Sixteen people died in the blast and 20 others died later.

Investigators said the blast was triggered by kids' mischief-making. Three children aged under 14 threw a burning firecracker through a ventilation intake into one of the company's firework storehouses.

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

The investigation also found that some combustible goods in the storehouses were purchased through illegal channels, and that regulations concerning their storage were also breached.

Chinese people like to set off firecrackers during the Lunar New Year holidays to wish each other good luck for the coming year. Firecracker factories often ignore safety measures, which regularly leads to accidents.

In August, seven people were killed in a fireworks factory blast in northeast China's Jilin Province due to improper operating procedures.

In April, eight people were killed in a firecracker factory explosion in Pianguan County in north China's Shanxi Province.

Source: Xinhua