Hong Kong culls thousands of birds over avian flu scare

Hong Kong culled 4 500 birds on Tuesday after the deadly H7N9 bird flu virus was discovered in a chicken at a local market.

Health officials in white hazmat suits and masks dumped the chickens into green plastic bins at a wholesale poultry market in central Hong Kong on Tuesday morning.

The bins were then pumped with carbon dioxide to kill the birds.

Hong Kong is particularly alert to the spread of viruses after an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) swept through the city in 2003, killing 299 people and infecting around 1 800.