Nine people were arrested and three officials removed from their posts Wednesday, after a viaduct collapsed in central China's Hunan Province, killing nine people and injuring 16 others.

The suspects included Gao Yubin, general manager of the Nanlingcivil explosion company, and Fu Xingui, a deputy general manager. Cheng Ji'ang, head of labor contractor, and his workers Cheng Jihui, Li Shulin, Zhang Yibing, Zhou Tao along with supervisors Yu Zhuo and Deng Wenhui were also arrested.

Cheng Ji'ang won the bid for the job of demolishing the viaduct from Gao on April 27. Cheng is under investigation for being unqualified to do the work, said Chen Jing, a spokesman with the Zhuzhou government, at a press conference Wednesday.

On May 15, Cheng, under the command of Fu Xingui, conducted a trial demolition of the viaduct which ended up cracking the bridge,Chen said.

On May 17, when the viaduct collapsed, workers were drilling holes in supporting pillars but failed to block traffic, he added.

That is just some of what a preliminary investigation discovered. Xinhua expects more information regarding the arrests. The cause of the collapse is to be released Thursday.

Meanwhile, three officials, namely Shen Ping, head of the Zhuzhou construction bureau, Zeng Jianhua, chief engineer of the bureau, and Ding Wei, who was in charge of the viaduct project, were removed from their posts.

The 2,750-meter-long Hongqi Road Viaduct, built in 1995, was the city's first viaduct. It was to have been demolished Wednesday but about 200 meters of it collapsed at 4:24 p.m. Sunday.

(Xinhua News Agency May 21, 2009)