Panicking crowds flee Chinese capital

By BENJAMIN KANG LIM

BEIJING - A sea of people in white masks thronged Beijing railway stations yesterday as students and migrant workers terrified of the Sars virus tried to flee the Chinese capital.

Disinfection squads spread across the nation, and armies of workers in masks and rubber gloves sprayed airports and planes, buses and terminals, trains and stations.

The Government cancelled domestic tours, sent teams of medical experts to the provinces to contain the virus and cancelled classes for Beijing's 1.7 million school students.

The World Health Organisation has said the disease, already present in 19 cities, provinces and regions, could explode across the country of 1.3 billion if sharp measures were not taken to curb it.

In Beijing, the Government has raised the number of cases from 37 to 588 in three days, out of the country's 2305. The city of 14 million has also reported 693 suspected cases and 35 deaths. Across the country, 106 people have died across so far.

More than 4000 cases have been diagnosed worldwide. The death toll last night was at least 251. Hundreds of travellers lugging suitcases clogged the square in front of Beijing Railway Station hoping to get on one of the dozens of trains going to the north, south and west.

A sea of faces in white cotton masks scanned coveted train tickets, waiting for hours outside in the chilly air rather than linger in crowded, enclosed waiting rooms.

"My train doesn't leave for another six hours, but I'm not waiting inside," said 20-year-old Cao Shu, a student whose university halted all classes two days ago.

Across town at the Beijing West Railway Station, Deng Pao, a 30-year-old migrant worker, read the latest Sars update from a newspaper as he waited for an overnight train to Zhengzhou in Henan province, which has reported just three cases.

"I'm going home because I'm scared of getting sick," he said after managing to buy a ticket. "I've been in Beijing for two months and had a good job, but it's not worth it."

Deng said he would return once the outbreak was controlled.

It is not clear when that may be. China, after hiding the true extent of the outbreak in Beijing for weeks, has leaped into damage control. The health minister and mayor were sacked on Monday and state media cleared to report on Sars, including more honest infection levels and prevention measures.

New Zealand Embassy staff in Beijing confirmed that a New Zealander has contracted the virus. He had been in a 19-member group from Britain which was nearing the end of its eight-day tour to China when he was hospitalised on Sunday in Xian, capital of Shaanxi province.

As part of China's damage control efforts, the Hong Kong newspaper Wen Wei Po said Vice-Premier Wu Yi would be appointed interim Health Minister.

Analysts said the Government hoped her appointment would reassure foreign investors and help to repair an image suffering its worst damage since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

Dubbed the "Iron Lady", Wu sits on the Communist Party's 24-member Politburo and is the country's most senior woman politician.

Economists say Sars could take a bite out of China's roaring economy. Investment bank JP Morgan Chase says the economy could contract by 2 per cent this quarter after years of about 7 per cent annual growth.

In other developments:

* New South Wales added Sars to a list of dangerous, communicable diseases, allowing authorities to fine or jail potential sufferers for six months if they refuse treatment.

* Singapore threatened people who repeatedly break tough Sars quarantine rules with jail as an outbreak at a major vegetable market threatened to spread the disease into the community. The virus has killed 14 people in the island state and infected 186.

* A leading Hong Kong microbiologist said the virus appeared to be becoming more virulent, attacking the intestines as well as the respiratory system. Professor Malik Peiris of Hong Kong University said the change might indicate the virus had mutated, as many experts feared.