Sars Sparks Chinese Riots

Thousands of people in Zhejiang province, south of Shanghai, went on the rampage at the weekend in protest at the Chinese government's inability to control the spread of Sars.

Reports of the violence coincided with the health ministry's announcement of nine further deaths, taking the number of fatalities in China above 200.

Thousands rallied in front of a local government building in Xiande which has been turned into a quarantine centre for visitors from Beijing and other areas affected by the virus.

The police said the protesters were angry because the building lacked the medical equipment and trained staff to protect the community. Five broke into the building on Sunday night, smashed windows and furniture and beat up three officials.

A few days earlier there was a similar riot in Chugugang, 45 miles from Beijing, where a school due to be turned into a quarantine centre was wrecked.

During the week several communities set up roadblocks and turned away outsiders.

Since it gave up trying to conceal the problem the government has won international praise for its efforts to halt the outbreak, using a mixture of modern openness and old-fashioned public education.

Although doctors in Hong Kong said yesterday that the virus was able to survive on plastic surfaces for 24 hours, suggesting that it is more resilient than previously thought, the outbreak seems to have been brought under control there and in Singapore, Vietnam and Canada.

An exception is Taiwan, where the number of cases has tripled to more than 300 in two weeks.

Beijing has dropped its political objections and allowed World Health Organisation officials to visit the island for the first time for 30 years.