THOUSANDS of panicking residents packed Beijing’s two main railway stations yesterday to flee what is now the area worst-affected by Sars in mainland China.

Laden with burlap bags and potato sacks, they boarded trains for whichever destination they could get a ticket as the death toll jumped by 25 per cent in the Chinese capital.

Seven more people died and another 105 were infected. The World Health Organisation gave warning for the first time against travelling to Beijing, where there have now been 693 Sars cases and 35 deaths.

Travellers clogged the square in front of Beijing railway station. A sea of faces in white cotton masks waited 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 Cao Shu, 20, a student whose university halted all classes two days ago because of Sars.

Across the city at Beijing West railway station, Deng Pao, 30, a migrant worker, read a Sars update in a tabloid 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. “I’ve been in Beijing for two months and had a good job, but it’s not worth it.” He said that he would return when the outbreak was controlled.

It was unclear when that may be. China has more than half of the world’s more than 4,200 Sars cases and, after hiding the true extent of the outbreak in Beijing for weeks, has leapt to damage control. The Health Minister and the Mayor were sacked on Sunday and state media finally allowed to report on Sars, including more honest infection levels and prevention measures.

The Health Ministry reported an additional 147 cases throughout the country yesterday and nine deaths. The national number of Sars infections stands at 2,305 and the death toll at 106.

The World Health Organisation has said that the virus, already present in 19 cities, provinces and regions, could explode across the country of 1.3 billion people if sharp measures were not taken to curb it. At the railway stations, some feared that soon the Government would impose travel restrictions.

As part of apparent damage control efforts, Wu Yi, the Vice-Premier, would be appointed interim Health Minister, the Beijing-funded Wen Wei Po newspaper in Hong Kong said.

Analysts said that the Government was hoping Mrs Wu’s 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”, Mrs Wu sits on the Communist Party’s elite 24-member Politburo and is China’s most senior woman politician.

Government efforts have, however, done little to dampen the Sars panic in Beijing. Many residents are preparing for long spells locked in their homes. Shelves of staples, such as rice and instant noodles, and disinfectant, have been emptied.

One supermarket attendant said: “We have sold every last bottle of Dettol because it is the most popular brand among people afraid of Sars.” The disinfectant is made in Slough by Reckitt Benckiser.

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.

Other cities in China are now trying to avoid Beijing’s fate. In Hangzhou, community programmes in school facilities have been called off and school playgrounds and sports fields closed to outsiders.

Newspapers said that schools throughout the country have been ordered to step up work on disinfecting their facilities and teaching students hygiene, but no other closures were immediately reported.

The island province of Hainan, which has not reported any Sars cases, suspended airline links with Hong Kong and foreign countries in an attempt to keep out the disease, the Xinhua News Agency said.

In Beijing, an infra-red body temperature scanner has been set up at the capital’s airport to check passengers for fever. News reports said that similar devices are to be set up at railway stations and airports in Shanghai, the county’s biggest city.

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