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190 hurt in fire drill accident

Shanghai Daily, September 21, 2015

• A fire drill at a school in northwest China left more than 190 people injured, nine critically, after participants inhaled smoke used to simulate accident conditions, Xinhua news agency said yesterday.

  More than 400 students at the middle school in Gansu Province's Tianshui City took part in the combined fire and air raid drill on Friday when artificially generated smoke surged out of control, Xinhua reported.

  It was not known what type of smoke was used.

  "Many students began to cough and vomit after inhaling the smoke," the report quoted the local government as saying.

  Cities across China, including Shanghai, sounded air raid alarms on Saturday as part of an annual education day to raise awareness of national defense.

  One academic linked the air raid drill in Beijing to the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, Xinhua said, which the country marked earlier this month with a massive military parade.

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