Beihai forestry authorities have been given a deadline to investigate the circumstances leading to the death of a boy who was killed by crocodiles at a wildlife park in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region last month.

The tragedy occurred at about 6 PM on April 20, when a 9-year-old boy surnamed Liu and three other children from Xiantian Primary School snuck into a temporarily closed crocodile pool, Xinhua News Agency reported.

The boys teased the beasts until one of them attacked Liu and dragged him into water, where he was torn to pieces by a congregation of crocodiles.

The local Party discipline inspection department sent a letter of inquiry last week to the Beihai forestry bureau, which is in charge of wildlife protection and management.

The letter ordered the bureau to investigate the case within a certain amount of time and to turn over both the people responsible and a renovation plan to avoid further problems. Details of the deadline were not made available.

The local discipline inspection department introduced the letter of inquiry system earlier this year. So far, 16 local officials have lost their posts under the system.

Crocodile breeding is strictly supervised, requiring the approval of forestry and marine departments, local discipline officials said.

However, "this crocodile pool is illegal and does not possess valid breeding certification," Tang Yongbin, deputy director of the Beihai forestry bureau, told www.cctv.com.

The crocodile enclosure is part of a recreational park at a holiday resort called Yintan, or Silver Beach, in Beihai. A local court had earlier ordered the park to close because of outstanding debt.

Eleven crocodiles were living in the pool when the accident happened. Crocodiles are on the State endangered animal list.

Police snipers later shot dead one of the animals after parts of Liu's body were found in its stomach.

The remaining 10 crocodiles were moved to the Guangxi endangered wild animal protection center for breeding and care.

"The crocodiles are the only innocent parties in this whole incident," Jiang Jinsong, a sociologist at Tsinghua University, was quoted by Beijing News as saying.

"Poor wildlife management is the real culprit," Jiang said.

Local residents said students from nearby primary schools often went to the crocodile pool to play, China News Service reported.

Locals said the park's owner had hired a keeper for the crocodiles, but at the time of the accident he was cooking a meal and did not see the children enter.

The manager and the caretaker are in police custody pending further investigation.

(China Daily May 17, 2007)