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July 12

— BEIJING (Reuters) - Nearly 1,000 schoolchildren were rushed to hospital after being vaccinated for encephalitis in northeast China and two senior officials were arrested and charged with negligence, local officials said on Friday.

The students, aged between seven and 16, suffered from fevers, nausea, vomiting and, in a few cases, heart infections soon after being vaccinated in late June, a health official from the Heilongjiang province city of Mishan told Reuters.

Initial examinations found nothing wrong with the vaccine, but samples have been sent to Beijing for further tests, she said from the city near the Russian border.

"A total of 8,300 students took the vaccine for encephalitis B and now more than 900 are in hospital," she said.

A doctor at a local hospital said some of the students were seriously ill.

Police and prosecutors in the area said the director of the Mishan Epidemic Prevention Station, which carried out the injections, and a deputy chief of the city Education Bureau, had been arrested and charged with negligence.

A police officer in Mishan said outraged parents staged demonstrations.

"They massed in front of the city government building to protest and even blocked some railway lines earlier this month, but now they have calmed down," he said.

Prosecutors declined to say when the accused officials would be tried, but said investigations were continuing.

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