China Masks a Mass Poisoning

The Chinese government clamped down on reports of a mass fatal poisoning yesterday, provoking a wave of criticism on one of the country's most popular websites.

More than 200 people became violently ill after buying breakfast food from a fastfood shop in a suburb of Nanjing in central China on Saturday.

Students at a school in Tangshan and workers on nearby construction site collapsed in the road after buying fried dough sticks, sesame cakes and other popular snacks.

An early report put the death toll at more than 40. The official Chinese news agency would only say yesterday that "a number have died".

The victims were taken to 10 hospitals, which were reportedly instructed not to give information to the media.

Angry comments were posted on the Strong Country bulletin board run by the People's Daily. Many asked why it was taking so long for casualty figures to be released, while others compared the Chinese media unfavourably with the western press.

"If it were a government official who had died," said one, "we would soon hear all about it."

The Communist party's propaganda department recently banned the media from reporting stories which might "disturb social stability" in the run-up to the national congress in November.

Yesterday the central committee and the cabinet sent police officers and health officials to investigate the incident, the state media said, highlighting the concern in Beijing about bad publicity.

An official news agency report attempted to show Beijing's concern by saying that party and government leaders had "demanded" that the provincial government should "do what they can to save the poisoned people".

Uncensored reports from Nanjing carried in the Hong Kong press said that many students were buying their breakfast before taking extra Saturday classes. The poison took effect within several minutes: victims collapsed frothing at the mouth and became unconscious.

Peng Yongqing, who owns a shop next to the suspected fastfood shop on the main thoroughfare in Tangshan, said he saw an elderly man collapse after eating breakfast there on Saturday.

"It happened right there in front of my store," he told Reuters. "One minute he was sitting there eating and the next he stood up and keeled over. We all thought he was choking, we had no idea what was wrong."

There were so many casualties that army vehicles had to be brought in to take them to hospital.

As panic spread, the police closed down all fastfood outlets in Tangshan. The owner of the shop held responsible was detained.

Residents said the snacks may have been made on a small stall down a grimy alley, which was cordoned off by the police.

In the absence of firm information, rumours spread of foul play: one suggested that rat poison might be to blame.

Monitors at the People's Daily bulletin board deleted some critical items as soon as they appeared on the site but allowed a stream of protest against the national television news coverage. The evening news programme showed victims being told that they would be well looked after because of "the concern of the central [Party] leadership".

Fatal food poisoning is sometimes caused in China by restaurants using cheaper industrial salt instead of cooking salt.

One hundred and forty-six people died and more than 15,000 were affected by food poisoning last year. The state media reported that the main causes were rat poison, chemicals and bacteria.