A South East Asian pupil at a Pudsey school faces two weeks in quarantine to ensure he has not been infected by SARS.

Fulneck School issued a warning to all pupils from Hong Kong and China not to return home for the holidays amid fears of contamination.

Only one pupil out of 12 from South East Asia ignored the warning and he now faces ten to 12 days away from the school to ensure he has not no symptoms of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.

Vice Principal Trevor Kernohan said: "We issued a news letter to all parents advising them of the measures we are taking to prevent an outbreak at the school and we have only had a handful of calls from concerned parents."

Mr Kernohan said the youngster would have to undergo a thorough medical before being allowed to return to the school.

Meanwhile, China today closed and sealed a second hospital in the battle to contain the SARS outbreak, keeping patients and 2,000 workers under observation.

The decision to quarantine the People's Hospital of Peking University in Beijing was taken as worried residents in the capital panic bought stocks of food, according to reports.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome has killed 264 people worldwide, 110 of those in China and 16 in Toronto, Canada.

In Britain, the Government has been urged to classify SARS alongside cholera and smallpox so that people arriving in the UK with symptoms can be detained for treatment.