Hong Kong under quarantine as deadly SARS virus spreads

SCIENTISTS in Hong Kong yesterday said they had identified the virus behind a mystery pneumonia that has killed more than 50 people worldwide.

Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee-hwa said that the government had closed city schools and had also said the government had invoked a quarantine law not used for decades. Anyone breaking it can be fined or jailed for up to six months.

A day after Singapore took similar action, Tung said schools would shut for a week from March 29 to try to contain a rapidly-spreading pneumonia that has infected about 1,300 people in Asia, North America and Europe.