Beijing: Enraged farmers attacked a government building and beat up officials to prevent them from opening a SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) quarantine centre in a village in eastern China even as nine more people died from the killer epidemic and another 160 were infected in the country on May 5.

Angry over a plan to use a dormitory as a quarantine centre, more than 100 farmers stormed a government office and beat up three officials on May 4 in Zhejiang province's Yuhuan county, the "Jianghuai Morning Post" reported.

The paper said two people identified as the ring leaders have been arrested while there were reports of several others being detained.

Last week more than 2000 people torched a school building near Beijing which was earmarked as SARS quarantine centre.

The health ministry said the detection of nine new cases and 160 additional cases of SARS epidemic took the toll to 206 and the number of cases on the Chinese mainland to 4,280.

Three of the new deaths were in Beijing, which remained the hardest hit place in the world with 98 of the 160 latest cases of SARS also being reported.

The ministry said the latest figures, took the Beijing death toll to 103, more than any other area of the vast country.

The east Chinese city of Nanjing has put nearly 10,000 people in quarantine in an effort to halt the spread of the deadly disease.

PTI