Story highlights Local police detain 12 in connection with the landslide

Former top official in charge of regulating dump kills himself

More than 70 people are still missing in landslide disaster

Beijing (CNN) A former official in charge of regulating a massive waste dump that collapsed in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen has killed himself, local police said Monday.

The former director of the Urban District Administrative Enforcement Bureau in the city's Guangming district where the landslide disaster took place December 20, jumped off a residential building Sunday night, the Shenzhen Nanshan District public security bureau said on its official Weibo social media account.

Police only identified him by his family name Xu but Caixin, an influential financial magazine identified the official as Xu Yuan'an.

Police and state media have not said whether Xu had been directly responsible for authorizing the dump.

In a statement posted on its official Weibo page, the Shenzhen Public Security Bureau said the police had taken what they call "compulsory measures" against 12 people who should be held responsible for the landslide, including executives of the facility.

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