Six persons including a former local railway official have been detained over a deadly train collision on April 28 that killed 72 and injured 416 in east China's Shandong Province, the Ministry of Railways said on Saturday.

They include Guo Jiguang, former deputy director of the Jinan Railway Bureau, two dispatchers, a railway station supervisor and an assistant, as well as a train driver.

T195, a high-speed train from Beijing to the coastal city of Qingdao, derailed in Zibo's Zhoucun District at early April 28. Several coaches were thrown on a parallel track and was hit by another train coming from the opposite direction.

The accident is the worst that occurred to China's railway system in a decade.

Investigators said the train T195 was traveling at a speed much higher than the speed limit on that section of the track, because the driver had not been informed of the speed limit.

Guo was dismissed and subject to investigation by the railways ministry on the next day of the accident.

(Xinhua News Agency May 11, 2008)