President Hu Jintao, after hearing two Chinese were killed in a roof collapse at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport Sunday, immediately asked the Chinese Foreign Ministry to assist the French side to help the injured and handle properly the affairs regarding the Chinese victims.

The Foreign Ministry and Chinese Embassy in France are trying their best to handle properly the affairs of the Chinese victims, make arrangements for Chinese survivors, and conduct negotiations with the French side on compensation issues, said sources with the Foreign Ministry in Beijing Monday.

It was reported that eight staff members of a Chinese trading firm were passing by gate number 54 at the Terminal 2E of the Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport when the collapse occurred Sunday morning and two of them have been confirmed dead, one slightly injured, and the other five in good conditions.

The Foreign Ministry and Chinese Embassy in France took emergency measures after hearing of the collapse, and diplomats were sent to the scene as soon as possible to learn about more details.

The killed man was named Wu Xin, 32, sales manager from Beijing Mashi Trade Corporation, and the killed woman was named Liu Jianfang, about 30, a sales woman from the firm's office in Xiamen.

(Xinhua News Agency May 25, 2004)