Japan has concluded that a poison gas accident in Guangzhou City in southern China earlier this month was caused by chemical weapons abandoned by the Japanese military at the end of World War II, the Foreign Ministry said Sunday night.  

Poison gas experts and government officials sent from Japan in response to a Chinese request inspected the site earlier Sunday, ministry officials said.

On Thursday, the Foreign Ministry notified the Japanese embassy in Beijing that three people inhaled poison gas leaked from abandoned shells when they removed sand on a river bank in Guangzhou on Tuesday.

Noting that the three received treatment at hospital, the Foreign Ministry said the accident must have been caused by abandoned Japanese chemical weapons, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

In August 2003, poison gas leaked from chemical weapons that were dug up at a construction site in Qiqihar City in Heilongjiang Province, killing one local resident and injuring 43 others. The weapons were discarded by the former Imperial Japanese Army.

Japan plans to build two weapons-disposal facilities in Harbaling, Jilin Province, where most of an estimated 700,000 artillery shells abandoned by Japan are believed to be buried.

(Chinadaily.com.cn via agencies, June 27, 2005)