Third baby dies in China milk powder scandal

China said on Wednesday a third infant had died from drinking milk contaminated with toxic melamine and 6,244 infants were sick as four officials were sacked amid a widening scandal.

The number of infants diagnosed with "acute kidney failure" had risen to 158; Health Minister Chen Zhu told a news conference carried live on state television.

Four city officials and a company boss have been sacked in the health scare which has seen thousands of parents in southern China flood into Hong Kong to buy foreign-made milk powder.

China is the world's second biggest market for baby milk powder.

The head of China's quality watchdog body, Li Changjiang, told a press conference that 22 companies nationwide were found to have produced the milk powder that contained melamine. He said two milk producers, Guangdong Yashili Group and Qingdao Suncare Co Ltd, had exported milk formula to Yemen, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Gabon and Burundi and said both companies were recalling their exports.

Melamine is normally used for making plastics and glues, but authorities have said it was put into the milk powders to make it appear the product had more protein.

The industrial chemical is being blamed for causing kidney stones in the affected babies, a condition that is rare in infants but which causes a range of health risks.

Babies have reportedly been taken to hospital unable to pass urine and suffering severe vomiting.

The scandal is the latest to rock China's food industry, which has been tarnished by a series of health scares over dangerous products, some of which have been exported. In 2004, at least 13 babies died after drinking fake milk powder that had no nutritional value.

But with other big dairy companies found to have also used milk carrying melamine, the widespread anger over the poisonings may be far from dying down.