THE World Health Organisation last night issued an unprecedented warning that the Sars epidemic had for the first time made a Western city unsafe to visit.

Amid rising international alarm, the WHO said the “magnitude of disease” meant it was advising travellers to stay away from the Canadian city of Toronto, where more than 200 people now have the potentially deadly illness and 16 have died.

The global health watchdog also advised against travelling to Beijing, where thousands of panicked residents flocked to the Chinese capital’s two main railway stations to buy tickets for any destinations that were still available.

In a desperate attempt to contain infection the Chinese Government yesterday shut all schools for two weeks. Last night it announced it would quarantine hotels, hospitals, schools or any other building suspected of infection, and gave warning that it would take “compulsory measures” against anyone who refuses to co-operate.

British companies have begun ordering executives returning from high-risk parts of the world, especially Asia, to quarantine themselves at home for 10 day when they return. Lloyds TSB, NatWest and the Royal Bank of Scotland all confirmed they were quarantining staff and banning non-essential travel to affected regions.

“We’ve decided that the safest place for them to be is at home, it is the logical thing to do when there is such a clear quarantine period,” said a spokesman for Freshfields Bruckhaus Derigner, the City’s biggest law firm, which has stopped travel to several of its Far East branches.

The Government confirmed that it was updating its travel advice and was now giving warning against non-essential travel to Hong Kong, Beijing, Toronto and the Chinese provinces of Guangdong and Shanxi. “There is no immediate prospect of Sars being eradicated,” Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer, said. “That is why the UK has taken the threat so seriously.”

There are now more than 4,000 reported cases of Sars from 25 countries on five continents and the disease is showing no signs of abating. Around the world 251 people have died of the disease, mainly in Asia, and a special summit of Asian leaders has been called in Bangkok next week to discuss the crisis.

But in Toronto the authorities reacted with outrage to the WHO warning, which is likely to cost the city hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue. American newspapers have described Toronto as “the pariah city” and even before the WHO alert the American Association for Cancer Research had cancelled its annual conference, which would have brought some 28,000 people to the city.

Mel Lastman, the Mayor, said he was furious at the WHO decision, pointing out that close to four million people lived in Toronto and less than 400 of them have been infected.

“If it’s safe to live in Toronto, it’s safe to come to Toronto,” he said. “I’m shocked. The medical evidence before us does not support this advisory and I am told they have never issued an advisory like this before in their history. I cannot believe they are not coming back for three weeks. I want them here tomorrow.”

But David Heymann, the WHO director of communicable diseases, said that the three-week deadline would remain as it was twice the syndrome’s maximum incubation period. “As was the case for Hong Kong and Guangdong, we now have these areas which have a high magnitude of disease, a great risk of transmission locally and have also been exporting cases to other countries,” he said.

In China, which about 300,000 British citizens visit each year, the Health Ministry reported an additional 147 cases and a total of nine deaths in the past 24 hours. The national number of Sars infections stands at 2,305 and the death toll at 106.

But the new honesty on the part of the Chinese authorities has led to widespread panic in Beijing, which had thought it was dealing with only a handful of cases. Epidemiologists have said if many more people leave the capital it could spread the syndrome further into rural China, which does not have the medical facilities to cope. Last night, however, there was no sign of the Chinese authorities preventing the exodus. Those not trying to leave Beijing have been stocking up on emergency supplies in preparation for long spells locked in their homes. Some supermarkets have been emptied of staple foods such as rice and instant noodles, as well as disinfectant.

Schools in Beijing, copying measures employed in Hong Kong to fight the epidemic, are to close for two weeks starting today in a move that will affect 1.7 million students. Tests at which students gather in large auditoriums are to be postponed indefinitely.

Britain has seen only six cases of Sars and is not routinely screening visitors arriving in the country. However, the Government has been criticised by some experts for not doing more.

Dr Patrick Dixon, who has specialised in studying the Aids epidemic, and is a futurist at the Centre for Management Development at London Business School, said that if current trends continued the disease could easily spread widely in Europe. “Unless the virus spontaneously mutates into a less dangerous form, the only hope we have is to mount an immediate aggressive global response at the highest levels against Sars, something we’ve not yet seen,” he said.

“If things continue as they are, with a mixture of confusion, delay and ignorance then a pandemic is surely only a matter of time.”

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