SANMING, Fujian, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- Chinese health authoritiesare investigating four anaesthesia-related deaths at a Sanming City hospital in the eastern Fujian Province.

    The patients had operations for different diseases and died at the No. 2 Hospital of Sanming between Sept. 3 and Oct. 11. Media reports said the victims, three males and a female, had all undergone surgical anaesthesia.

    The three males were identified as 26-year-old Feng Guangle, three-year-old Zou Zhengtao and 29-year-old Jiang Chenfeng. The woman was Zhang Chunmei, 44, a hospital spokesman told Xinhua on Tuesday.

    The hospital is in Yong'an, a small city under Sanming's jurisdiction.

    The spokesman said the heartbeat and breathing of the three males stopped when they had surgical anaesthesia during their operations.

    Feng received an operation on Sept. 3 and died 23 days later after continuous treatment. Zou underwent surgery on Sept. 24 and died seven hours later. Jiang's operation was on Oct. 10 and he died in the early morning of the next day.

    But the spokesman would not say whether the female patient had surgical anaesthesia or not in her Sept. 18 operation. Her heartbeat and breathing stopped after the operation and she died eight days later.

    "Local health and drugs supervision authorities are investigating the cause of the incidents. Samples of the drugs used in the operations are being tested," he said.

    A panel of health experts dispatched by the Ministry of Health had arrived in the city to join in the investigation.