Water to the urban districts of Harbin, the capital of northeastern Heilongjiang province, was stopped at midnight Tuesday, the local government announced as it struggled to calm the fears and panic buying of residents.

"The recent explosion of two benzene processing towers at PetroChina's Jilin Petroleum and Chemical Company could end up polluting waters in the Songhua river," Harbin's top leader Du Yuxin said in a statement.

"The city government has decided to provisionally stop supplying water to the public water network, this is an emergency order and a responsible measure to ensure the safety and health of citizens."

State press reports said 3.8 million people in the urban districts were expected to be without water from the public network for four days.

However a government announcement ordering the stoppage did not give a timeframe for when water services would resume.

The water stoppage follows the massive November 13 explosion at the PetroChina petrochemical plant some 380 kilometers (230 miles) up the Songhua river from Harbin in neighboring Jilin province.

The accident killed at least five people and led to the temporary evacuation of thousands of residents amid fears of the emmission of toxic gases. However all the residents were allowed to return home shortly after the accident.

The government has given few specifics about what may have leaked out of the factory other than stating the accident occurred at the benzene processing plants.

Benzene is a highly toxic chemical that can be lethal if someone is exposed to high levels, even in short doses, according to the US National Library of Medicine's website.

Benzene is listed as a carcinogen although it is safe in very small doses, the website said.

No contaminated water from the partially frozen Songhua river had been detected around Harbin as of noon Wednesday, China Central Television reported.

However the Beijing News carried photos taken on Tuesday of dead fish washed up on the banks of the Songhua river near Jilin city.

The paper also quoted local residents as saying contaminated water flowed down the river on the day of the blast.

Jilin authorities refused to comment when contacted by AFP on whether the explosion had contaminated the river within their province.

One official from the environmental protection bureau of Jilin's Songyuan city, some 180 kilometers up river from Harbin, said water had been cut off to residents in parts of the city but refused to comment further.

In Harbin, the government was scrambling Wednesday to import bottled water from other regions. Xinhua news agency said the city's daily drinking needs were 18,600 tons a day.

Locals were also beginning to dig wells in order to tap underground water tables, Xinhua said, while locals hoarded food and water.

State television showed video of families storing water in containers of every sort, including bottles, buckets, pots and pans and bathtubs.

Schools in Harbin were also closed for a week, although hospitals remained open.

"The water cut off is going to really hamper our work, but we are doing all we can to minimize the impact," Zhang Ruitai, the head of logistics at the Harbin Medical University, the city's largest hospital, told AFP.

The ordeal has highlighted environmental concerns in China about the prospect of worsening pollution contaminating major urban water supplies and exacerbating water shortages already affecting many areas of the country.

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