RACING against a self-imposed deadline, Chinese authorities drowned or electrocuted the first of thousands of civet cats yesterday in an urgent effort to eliminate a possible source of the SARS virus.

China, faced with the return of SARS, has ordered wild animals slaughtered by the thousands in the disease’s suspected region of origin.

CHINA has ordered the slaughter of 10,000 civet cats and related species by the weekend to contain a possible SARS outbreak.

A man taken ill in southern China has the SARS virus, triggering scares that a second outbreak of the illness might be about to hit Asia.