11 held over China's Shenzhen landslide; death toll reaches 12

Eleven people have been arrested for alleged negligence leading to one of China's worst landslides in the southeastern manufacturing hub of Shenzhen as the death toll in the disaster climbed to 12, officials said today.
The December 20 disaster happened when a huge man-made mound of earth and construction debris lost stability and collapsed, destroying 33 buildings in the industrial city.
Sixty two people still remain missing.
The procuratorate of Bao'an district, Shenzhen, announced the arrests today, three days after police took "coercive measures" against 12 people, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The 11 people arrested include a legal representative and a deputy general manager of a company in charge of landfill.

They were charged with the crime of negligently causing a serious accident, the procuratorate said, adding that it has urged the police to trackdown other suspects still on the run.
China has a poor record on industrial safety standards. Anger over lax safety standards have been growing after scores of deaths this year in industrial accidents.