Five officers have been held responsible for the deaths of 85 police cadets, killed by Typhoon Longwang, in southeast China’s Fujian Province on October 2 and punished, according to an order issued recently by the State Council and the Central Military Commission.

Yu Deshui and Chen Qingyao, the commander and political commissar of the Fujian provincial unit of the Chinese People's Armed Police, were deposed and given records of serious demerits, according to an order issued recently by the State Council and the Central Military Commission.

President Zhou Xiaomeng and political commissar Shi Gongsheng of Fuzhou Armed Police Command School were removed from their posts both in the Communist Party of China and the Armed Police.

Hou Yongjun, director of the cadets brigade, is to be prosecuted by law enforcement organs.

Typhoon Longwang hit southeastern China on October 2. The typhoon wreaked havoc, bringing heavy rains and causing landslides, one of which destroyed a barracks occupied by cadets, killing 85 of them.

(Xinhua News Agency November 14, 2005)