A total of 36 people in southwest China's Guizhou Province have either been sacked or demoted after a gas leak killed 35 people in November, the country's work safety watchdog said on Monday.

Liu Longling, an investor at the Qunli Colliery, Yue Ping, deputy chief of local coal mine safety bureau, Li Tianxiang, the coal mine manager and seven other held responsible were prosecuted for criminal responsibility, according to a notice of State Administration of Work Safety.

Another 26 people, including the head of Nayong county government and the chief of local work safety bureau, were given either Party discipline or administrative punishments for the accident.

The Qunli Colliery Company was fined two million yuan (US$293,000), according to the notice.

A total of 35 miners were killed in the gas leak at Qunli Colliery in Nayong County of Guizhou Province on November 8. Direct economic losses totaled 12.61 million yuan.

(Xinhua News Agency July 22, 2008)