The blood center with the Beijing Municipal Red Cross says it is running out of A-type blood and asks for more donors with the mentioned blood type.

The aggregate blood stockpiles with the center have been on decline since the beginning of the week and by 10 AM on Wednesday, there were 4,345 units -- each unit equivalent to 200 ml -- of blood kept in stock.

In accordance with normal blood-type storage proportion, A-type blood was in obvious scarcity, Thursday's The Beijing News cited sources from the center as saying.

The volume of blood collected via the center's buses on the streets has been dropping due to factors such as cold weather, many students of colleges of higher learning either preparing for final exams of the semester on campus or having left town for vacation, plus transient workers also heading for home to spend the forthcoming Spring Festival with their beloved ones.

On Tuesday, the center only collected 608 units of blood via its 13 blood buses on the street, but it sold 1,081 units of blood to various hospitals in the national capital in the same day.

(Xinhua News Agency January 12, 2006)