Overspeeding was responsible for Monday's deadly train collision in east China that killed 70 and injured 416 others, the investigation panel set up by the State Council said Tuesday.

A high-speed train from Beijing to Qingdao, coded T195, veered off the rails in the city of Zibo at about 4:40 a.m. on Monday. The derailed coaches smashed into another train, coded 5034, which was coming in the opposite direction along an adjacent line.

Investigators had said Monday that T195 was traveling at 131 kilometers per hour before the accident, far over the section's speed limit of 80 kilometers per hour.

Two top officials of the Jinan Railway Bureau, bureau director Chen Gong and Communist Party chief Chai Tiemin, were sacked just hours after the accident. They face investigations by the Ministry of Railways.

(Xinhua News Agency April 29, 2008)