Blown-Up School A Suspected Fireworks Factory

March 8 -- Imagine a school district where students spent half their day working because there wasn't enough money in the budget.

Imagine if the children were forced to make fireworks.

And that some of that profits were not only used to cover the budget, but to benefit teachers and local officials.

That's what some news reports say was the case in the rural southeastern Chinese village of Fang Lin, where an explosion in a schoolhouse killed at least 42 students and teachers on Tuesday.

Furious relatives of the victims are coming forward with the story after Chinese officials blamed the blast on a madman.

"Everybody knows it is caused by the fireworks. The government is trying to cover the facts. Please do not believe them," Zhang Chenggen told The Associated Press by telephone. His 11-year-old son Yu was killed in the blast.

Zhang said the children were ordered not to tell their parents about their work, and those who did were punished by being forced to kneel on the classroom floor.

Relatives of the dead said students at the school had been forced to assemble fireworks for at least three years.

A Cottage Industry

A number of media outlets said the children were working with explosives and detonators at the time of the blast, and that gunpowder and firecracker wrapping papers were found in the rubble.

Citing a local newspaper report, the Hong Kong iMail reported each student had to fit fuses in 20,000 firecrackers or they would be fined two yuan — about 25 cents — enough to buy four lunch boxes. It said the children were not paid, but occasionally were given a pencil or exercise book.

The Web site of the official China Daily newspaper said initial results from a police investigation revealed the school had signed a contract with a local fireworks plant, to pay school staff and students to assemble fireworks.

The area where the blast occurred, roughly 500 miles southwest of Shanghai, is well-known for its fireworks industry.