KATHMANDU, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- Alarmed by an increasing number of students and teachers catching common cold and high fever, a school in Nepali capital Kathmandu shut Tuesday.

    According to local newspaper The Himalayan Times, the shut down of the Mount Olives High School in Sinamangal, Kathmandu, is the first time that the school in the Valley closed down as a preventive measure against the global outbreak of the A/H1N1 Influenza.

    The school principal has urged the parents to send their kids to school on Sunday with masks. The decision came after a large number of students and teachers complained of "common cold" and "high fever."

    "The school will remain closed till Sunday. We hope that the situation will return to its normalcy by then," The Himalayan Times cited Laba Kumar Shrestha, school principal as saying.

    School authorities fear that some students who returned home after the Dashain and Tihar Festival vacation had common cold and they transmitted it to their peers in the classroom, Shrestha said, adding that "We're left with no option but to temporarily close the school as infection spread further."

    There are 400 students enrolled in the school.

    In a similar development earlier, schools were closed in Nepali western Parbat district and its neighboring districts - Baglung and Myagdi - for an indefinite period.

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