A senior official in charge of education in Guangshan county, Henan province, has been suspended from his post after two recent tragedies, the Dahe Daily reported on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, the county government said that Liu Zhongping, director of the county's education and sport bureau, was suspended from his job.

On Monday, four students from a primary school in the county drowned in a river on their way to school.

A police investigation showed that the four boys, aged between 7 and 10, were playing on the surface of the frozen river before the ice broke.

The accident follows another tragedy in the county that shocked the nation.

On Dec 14, a man stabbed and injured 23 students and two adults with a knife in a primary school. No deaths were reported.

The local government said that it believes that the two accidents reflect problems in the management of local schools by the county's education authority.