A transport official has been sacked due to a deadly bus accident that killed 51 people in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

Xian Guangzong, member of the Communist Party of China (CPC) committee of the Bazhong City Communications Bureau. was removed from his posts as the committee member and Bazhong Transport (Group) Co. Ltd's CPC chief.

Xian's posts as the company's board chairman and general manager were also asked to be recalled, according to a decision made by the standing committee of the Bazhong City CPC committee on Monday.

A bus veered off road guardrail and plunged into a 100-meter-deep valley in Nanjiang County, Sichuan Province at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, killing all the 51 people on it.

Li Zhongbin, Bazhong City's CPC chief, made a self-criticism to the public through a local TV station for the accident.

"As the city's CPC chief, I express my deepest uneasiness to the victims and their families," he said.

Forty-six of the dead have been identified. The compensation for the dead was also being paid.

The cause of the accident is still being investigated.

(Xinhua News Agency September 16, 2008)