A Shenzhen official Monday refuted a rumor of Ebola virus infection causing customs staff's death in this coastal city of south China's Guangdong Province.

Tang Jie, secretary-general of the city government, said the report of "China's first deadly Ebola-infected case occurred in Shenzhen", which was on a website, www.epochtimes.com, and then printed by the Singapore-based Lianhe Zaobao, was groundless.

The report said some Shenzhen Customs staffs were contracted with Ebola virus from sailors aboard a foreign-registered ship when they were checking smuggling. The infection had caused "heavy casualties".

An investigation was timely conducted by the local government after it received the relative document from the China Office of World Health Organization (WHO) via the Ministry of Health, said Tang. The investigation showed there had not been such an alleged contact between Chinese staffs and foreign smugglers.

Another probe done by the Shenzhen Health Bureau also excluded any infected cases of Ebola in the city.

Source: Xinhua