A student wearing a face mask leaves a high school in Beijing
Two schoolboys in China have died of sudden cardiac arrest in the space of a week as they take part in PE lessons while wearing face masks.
The students from two different Chinese cities, both 'suddenly' collapsed on their schools' running track and were subsequently pronounced dead on April 24 and April 30 respectively.
Chinese education authorities have cancelled running tests for this term as a result of concerns over students' fitness following three months of school closures.
It is believed that the boys had had trouble breathing during the exercise due to their face masks.
Their deaths came after another student also reportedly dropped dead during a PE lesson on April 14, but it has remained unclear if the pupil had been wearing a face mask.
Li, a 15-year-old student from central China, was declared dead on April 24 after he collapsed on campus at the DanchengCaiyuan Middle School in Henan Province.
The student's father, Mr Li, told the press that his son was running in laps on the school's sports ground before Li fell backwards.
'It happened within two to three minutes during his PE class.
'He was wearing a mask while lapping the running track, then he suddenly fell backwards and hit his head on the ground,' said Mr Li.
The school Li attended before he died
The parent said that a local hospital issued a death certificate claiming 'sudden cardiac arrest' as the cause of death.
But Mr Li believed that his son's death was caused by wearing a face mask during strenuous exercise.
'It was sunny and their PE class was in the afternoon when it was at least 20 degrees Celsius,' the Chinese father suggested.'It couldn't have been comfortable wearing a mask while running.'
A student wearing a face mask leaves a high school in Beijing
Chinese education authorities have cancelled running tests for this term as a result of concerns over students' fitness following three months of school closures.
Li, a 15-year-old student from central China, was declared dead on April 24 after he collapsed on campus at the DanchengCaiyuan Middle School in Henan Province.
The school Li attended before he died
