Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang underscored the scientific outlook on development and productionsafety during an inspection tour to northern Shanxi Province on Wednesday and Thursday.
Zhang visited the site of the Sept.
8 landslide in Xiangfen County on Thursday morning, where an unlicensed iron ore tailingspond burst and killed at least 262 people.
"The September 8 landslide was a very serious production safety incident, causing greatlosses, having a bad impact and leaving a deep lesson,” he said.
The vice premier said a thorough investigation into the cause of the incident should beconducted and that those responsible for it should be punished seriously in accordance with law.
A lesson should be drawn from the incident and people should be put first, he stressed, addingthat more efforts should be exerted to crack down on unlicensed production and corruption behindproduction safety incidents.
He also demanded local authorities have a scientific outlook on development.
Production safety should be strengthened through more investment, scientific andtechnological progress and better management, the vice premier said.