Beijing massacre troops 'given drugs' says teacher

in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, according to a teacher who returned from

the trouble-torn Chinese capital today.

''I believe they were given amphetamines after being told there was a

danger of disease,'' Mr Ed Hammond, a lecturer at Beijing Foreign

Studies University, said after flying into Gatwick airport.

''They were told they were being injected against gastro-enteritis. I

believe this is what made them go crazy.

''No-one in their right minds could have killed small children and

innocent bystanders.''

Mr Hammond said students who escaped the massacre returned to a campus

party he was attending and told him how a two-year-old baby girl was

bayoneted to death.

''They were holding each other up for support,'' he said. ''They were

all in a state of shock, filthy and many were injured.''

Fifteen did not return -- one was shot dead, another shot in both

legs, Mr Hammond said.

He said he, fellow lecturer Cherry Gough and their four-year-old

daughter Jiji had just five minutes' notice to leave the campus flat

that had been their home for six years. They left most of their

possessions behind.

''There is a real feeling of terror on the campus,'' said Ms Gough.

''The students are running for their lives back to their homes in the

country or to safe houses with friends.''

Lecturer Sandy Kennedy and her four children returned to Beijing from

a weekend at the seaside and ''found to our complete horror that the

entire city was closed.

''We were driven in a pedal cart -- by a very brave man -- through

streets of burning lorries and overturned trucks,'' she said.

Among their friends, a teacher and a student were shot and injured.

Another teacher's son -- ''just a bystander'' -- was killed.

University of Beijing linguistics lecturer Martin Wedell said soldiers

offered the students guns -- but they refused to take them ''in case it

was seen as provocative''.

He said students, who believed the authorities had a list of those who

took part in the demonstrations, now feared that soldiers would track

them down in the universities.

Dr Peter Allen, of the British Geological Survey, at Keyworth,

Nottingham, who returned from Beijing earlier today, after only three

days of a three-week visit at the invitation of the Chinese Ministry of

Geology and Natural Resources, had two spent bullets which had been

picked up from the grass outside a city social club.

''There was a lot of soldiers, convoys of parked lorries and burnt-out

vehicles,'' he said. ''It was very nasty at times.''

Dr Dianna Bowles, of Leeds University, who had had to cut short a

lecture tour when she returned from Shanghai, said: ''There was a sense

of fear, everybody was afraid about whether the army would go into

Shanghai.''

Student Catherine Danner, 19, of Leeds University, who also returned

from Shanghai, said: ''We heard the news of what was happening in

Beijing and we were very frightened.

''There were demonstrations every night, we could not get to sleep for

the noise. There were burnt-out buses at every main road in the city

centre.''

As Britons arrived at Gatwick, two Labour MPs flew out for a ''fact-

finding'' visit to Hong Kong.

Shadow foreign secretary Mr Gerald Kaufman and Mr George Foulkes,

front bench spokesman on the Far East, will spend two days meeting

members of the Hong Kong Government.

British Voluntary Service Overseas teachers have been told they can

stay in China if they feel safe. Others at colleges in areas of unrest

have already left.

Eight English teachers are in Hong Kong and will fly to Britain this

weekend. About a dozen others are expected to return home next week but

the remainder of the 60 VSO workers will probably stay in China for the

time being.

London spokeswoman Jo Hall said today: ''We have told them to travel

to Hong Kong only if they feel their travel arrangements are guaranteed.

''Some of our volunteers are in remote regions and we are advising

them to stay put as things are quietening down.''