A traffic policeman guides traffic in heavy fog in Huai'an, East China's Jiangsu province, yesterday. [He Jinghua/China Daily]

Fogs and rainstorms left one person dead and two missing Monday in east China and kept tens of thousands of passengers stranded in airports in several provinces.

One died on Monday after a 2-story work shed collapsed amid rainstorm and buried six workers in Hangzhou City, capital of eastern Zhejiang Province, said a spokesman with the local government.

The other five, one of whom in critical conditions, are now under medical treatment.

Two seamen were missing after a loaded sand freighter collided with a freighter carrying lubricant in the waters off Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province, in a thick fog at 4:30 a.m., said a spokesman with the Zhoushan Bureau of Maritime Affairs.

The two were from the sand freighter that sank after the collision, the spokesman said.

The fog and rains have left at least 20,000 passengers stranded at Hongqiao and Pudong airports Monday afternoon in Shanghai, China's business hub, as nearly 200 flights were delayed and cancelled.

Among them about 70 were overseas flights, mostly to Hong Kong, said the Pudong frontier inspection station.

More rains were expected in the following days and there was a high possibility for fogs, it said.

Nearly 10,000 passengers were stranded at Xiaoshan Airport in Hangzhou City, capital of Zhejiang Province, as fog and an ensuing thunderstorm forced planes to land at nearby airports, according to a statement of the airport.

In the southwest Chengdu City, 12,000 passengers were stranded at the local airport as fog had closed the airport for eight hours, delayed 123 flights and caused the cancellation of six others. The airport reopened at 11 a.m..

Fog has also delayed 22 flights at the airport in Xi'an, capital of the northwest Shaanxi Province.

In Shandong Province, visibility in Qingdao, Yantai, Weihai, Dezhou and Weifang cities dropped to well below 50 meters due to heavy fog, forcing the closure of a dozen of highways.

In an urgent notice issued by the Ministry of Public Security Monday, the ministry asked its subordinate traffic control departments to step up patrols in order to ease the traffic pressure caused by unfavorable weather conditions.

Traffic police were told to strengthen control and patrols in busy high-ways, bridges, tunnels, and in routes neighboring water and cliffs, to prevent collisions of vehicles and other road accidents caused by icy roads and low visibility.

Ice droplets about 2 to 5 mm in diameter were reported falling across Beijing. The capital's meteorological station said the icy rain would be followed by snow Monday evening, and the sleet would continue to Thursday.

Zhang Mingying, senior engineer with the station, said sleet in Beijing was rare in November, and the average temperature this week was about six degrees Celsius below average for the time of year.

December was the usual month for icy weather, he said.

Beijing residents are not familiar with frozen rain. A man surnamed Wei said he thought it was hail.

"The ice battered my car window as I was driving along Chang'an Avenue. I was surprised," he said.

The Beijing Environment and Sanitation Engineering Group Co. Ltd. had made preparations for the pending snowfall.

Zhang Zhiqiang, an official in charge of road cleaning in the company, said the company had prepared snow-thawing agents and snow-clearing vehicles for snow.

Neighboring Henan and Hebei provinces also saw rain and sleet on Monday.

The Hebei provincial meteorological station said the temperature this week would drop 8 to 10 degrees to below freezing from the average of 5 degrees Celsius last week, which was not a good news for local disease control authorities.

The lingering haze last week had already caused a rise in the number of patients of respiratory diseases, and A/H1N1 flu virus could spread faster with the expected drastic temperature drops, said Zhou Jikun, deputy director of the Hebei Provincial Center of Disease Control.

Eighty percent of more than 200 flu virus samples taken from hospitals in the provincial capital of Shijiazhuang last week tested positive for A/H1N1, he added.