Supermarkets in Beijing and other Chinese cities ran out of salt today as shoppers bought up supplies, apparently fuelled by rumours that future shipments of sea salt could be contaminated by radiation from Japan.

Several supermarkets in the southern province of Guangdong had sold out of salt by yesterday as local officials tried to “calm anxieties and panic shopping”, the official China Daily reported.

The price of salt in Guangdong had risen to “absurd levels”, the newspaper said without elaborating.

It quoted a provincial official as saying Guangdong had enough salt in storage to last three months and warning that the public was “misled by over-exaggerated rumours surrounding nuclear radiation”.

Experts also criticised the panic-buying by people in Guangdong, Beijing and Shanghai of iodine tablets, which can help to inhibit the absorption of radiation if used correctly.

China Daily quoted Liang Ping, a 56-year-old retired doctor in Shanghai, as saying she had visited 10 pharmacies which had sold out of cydiodine tablets before buying 10 packets through a friend working at a local hospital.

The Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention yesterday issued a statement warning against over-reaction and saying that iodine tablets should only be taken “under the instruction of the government after its appraisal of the situation”.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) yesterday urged people in China and other Asian nations of “harmful” rumours about radiation from Japan’s stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

“Governments and members of the public are encouraged to take steps to halt these rumours, which are harmful to public morale,” WHO China representative Michael O'Leary said in a statement.

A fake “BBC flashnews” message circulated on Chinese microblogs and mobile phones, warning people across Asia to avoid going outside in the rain and saying radiation from Japan was expected to hit the Philippines on Tuesday.

The Chinese government and state media have said there is little risk of significant levels of radiation reaching Shanghai and other eastern coastal cities from Japan.

- dpa