BEIJING - A SENIOR police officer was sentenced to 11 years in prison in south China for graft and dereliction of duty that resulted in a nightclub fire that killed 44 people, state media reported on Tuesday.

Chen Xuming, vice director of the public security bureau in a district of Shenzhen, a booming city in Guangdong province, was convicted of taking bribes of 60,000 yuan (S$13,288) from the club to ignore their lax safety standards, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Chen also turned a blind eye to drug dealing and prostitution in the Dance King club, the report said.

The fire and a subsequent stampede at the nightclub on September 20 left 44 people dead and dozens of others injured.

A fireworks stunt that went wrong caused the blaze, witnesses and state media reports said at the time.

The club was packed with hundreds of people, who had difficulty getting out because there were not enough exits.

Deadly fires are common in China due to the routine flouting or ignorance of fire and safety measures.

The government said early in 2008 that 159,000 fires broke out in China in 2007, killing more than 1,400 people. -- AFP