Three students have been killed and two others still in coma, after a gas poisoning at a rental house in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, according to government investigators on Tuesday.

The five victims, all girls, were junior high school students in a township school in Binxian County.

They were found poisoned by carbon monoxide leaked from a charcoal stove in the residential house that they rented for boarding on Monday morning.

The two injured were still in coma in hospital by Tuesday morning.

An initial investigation found the Xiangmiao Township Middle School could not provide boarding for half of its 720 students on campus. Many students have to rent houses outside the school.

Zhu Jingzhi, vice governor of Shaanxi, has urged an immediate investigation on the boarding safety in schools in the province after the accident.

(Xinhua News Agency March 3, 2009)