Three children die in north China school canteen collapse as snow continues

SHIJIAZHUANG, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Three children died and 28 were injured when a primary school canteen in north China's Hebei Province collapsed in heavy snow late Wednesday, the local authority said Thursday.

The accident happened at Longfeng Private Primary School at Mingguan Town, Yongnian County, at about 6 p.m. when the pupils were dining, a county government spokesman said.

Two girls and a boy died when the building collapsed after a second day of heavy snow. Their identities are yet to be made public, he said.

The injured were receiving treatment at a local hospital. The county government had relocated all the students to other schools to continue their studies on Wednesday night.

The government also issued a notice Wednesday night, asking all the middle and primary schools in the county to suspend classes for two days to check building safety.

Snow continued to hit many parts of north China Thursday, causing highway and airport closures.

The Taiyuan Airport in Shanxi Procvince was closed again at 2:15 a.m. after it was reopened at 9 a.m. Wednesday. It had been closed for 25 and a half hours before the reopening.

About 700 passengers were stranded at the airport. The airport staff are cleaning up the snow on the runway.

Most of the highways in Shandong Province were closed as snow hit the province Wednesday night. Nine flights to Dalian, Beijing,Lanzhou, Shenyang and Hohhot were delayed or canceled at Jinan International Airport and another flight to Beijing was also canceled at Yantai International Airport.

The snowfall reached 22.5 mm in Yanggu County and Dongying Cityrecorded a snow depth of 16 cm as of 11 a.m..

Beijing braced for the third snowfall in November early Thursday morning, and road traffic was disrupted at the morning peak, driving passengers to the already crowded subway stations.

Xinhua reporters saw little traffic Thursday morning in Zhengzhou City, capital of Henan Province, as snow covered the city for a third day. Many people were walking to work and all traffic police were on the road.

Heavy snow was expected to hit northeast China's Liaoning Province Thursday noon and last until Friday night with the highest precipitation of 10 mm, said Jiang Dakai, deputy head of Shenyang Central Meteorological Station.