No blame in China school collapse

By Michael Bristow | BBC World News
May 08, 2009

China says it has found no evidence that human negligence caused schools to collapse during last year's earthquake.

Thousands of schools were damaged while buildings nearby remained intact in the massive quake in Sichuan Province.

Many parents of dead and injured pupils blamed poor construction. They demanded an investigation.

The government has looked into the issue, but has now rejected the accusation that anyone was responsible for the schools' collapse.

According to official figures released on Thursday, a total of 5,335 schoolchildren died when their classrooms collapsed.

In some cases, schools were the only buildings to fall down during the magnitude-8 earthquake.

That led some parents to claim that they had been badly built by local governments eager to cut costs.

Beijing officials investigated the accusations, and initially suggested they could be true.

'Cover-up'

But Tang Kai, a senior planning official, said there was no evidence that human negligence led to the collapse of any school - or any other building.

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