Chinese Official Dies Amid Probe Into Deaths of 21 Marathon Runners

Rescuers assisting people who were competing in a 100-kilometer cross-country mountain race on May 22, 2021, when extreme weather hit near the city of Baiyin in China's northwestern Gansu province, leaving at least 20 dead. AFP via Getty Images

A top county-level Chinese Communist Party official died after authorities launched an investigation into the fatal ultramarathon held last month in northwest China.

On June 9, Li Zuobi, the Communist Party Secretary of Jingtai County of Gansu Province, died after falling from the building where he lived, officials confirmed Friday at a provincial government press conference.