China quarantined 10,000 more citizens in its efforts to contain Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) as panic riots hit rural areas.
Nine new deaths from SARS and 160 new cases were reported in China by last night, bringing the overall toll to death 206 and the total cases to 4,280 in what remains the worst-affected country.
In the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing, 10,000 people were quarantined in an effort to halt the spread of SARS. Villagers in two remote areas destroyed quarantine centres and beat up officials, a sign the disease is creating social instability.
Elsewhere, Hong Kong reported three more deaths, the lowest single-day death toll since April 12th, fuelling optimism that the outbreak may have peaked in the territory, where 187 people have died from the disease.
In Taiwan two more people died from SARS, taking the toll there to 10, while a 27th person died in Singapore.
Colombia has announced its first suspected SARS case - a 20-year-old woman who recently returned from a nine-month stay in Hong Kong.
An World Health Organization (WHO) advisory against non-essential travel to the Canadian city of Toronto was lifted last week, but WHO advisories on travel to Hong Kong, Beijing and China's Guangdong and Shanxi provinces remain.
SARS has killed 464 people worldwide, and over 6,500 probable or confirmed cases have been reported from more than two dozen countries.
AFP