BEIJING: Heavy snows in northern China wreaked havoc for the third day running on Thursday, killing at least eight people, stranding thousands of motorists and disrupting air travel, state media reported.

In Shaanxi province, five people were killed in two separate cave-ins, one at a market and the other at a industrial poultry farm, state Xinhua news agency reported, citing the ministry of civil affairs.

The collapse of the cafeteria at an elementary school in Hebei province on Wednesday killed three students and left 28 others injured, the Yanzhao Metropolitan News said.

Hebei authorities have issued orders to ensure school safety throughout the province, while schools in the provincial capital Shijiazhuang have been closed for three days due to the heaviest snows there in 54 years, reports said.

At Beijing's Capital Airport, more than 60 flights were cancelled and up to 100 postponed in the early hours of Thursday due to the fresh snow, the airport said.

On Tuesday, more than 200 flights were cancelled or postponed at the airport - one of the world's busiest - after snows blanketed the capital.

Snow also fell in the outlying regions of Shanxi and Liaoning provinces on Wednesday and Thursday, leading to highway closures and the stranding of up to 10,000 vehicles and 30,000 people in Shanxi alone, reports said.

Again in Shaanxi, the airport in Xian - home to China's famous terracotta warriors - had to shut down operations twice on Wednesday due to snowstorms, the local Chinese Business View said.

More than 200 incoming and outbound flights were cancelled throughout the day, the report said, delaying the travel of up to 20,000 passengers.

Officials have said the two storms that hit Beijing were artificially induced, sparking anger among capital-area residents, but the extent of the weather manipulation efforts remained unclear. - AFP/de