In Afghanistan, nearly 50 teenagers were taken to hospital after a mysterious gas attack on a girls' school in the northern town of Charikar. Doctors say none are in critical condition.

One of the victims said the headmaster rushed his students out of their classrooms after they smelled an unusual odor and started feeling nauseous and dizzy. She added that the attack might discourage girls from attending school.

Dozens of students' families gathered, demanding to be allowed inside a police cordon in order to check on their children.

Monday's attack comes barely two weeks after another mass poisoning at a different girls' school in the same town. There have been no clues in either case as to what the gas was or where it came from. Police have declined to comment.

(CCTV May 12, 2009)