BEIJING, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Public health emergencies claimed 393 lives on the Chinese mainland between January and September this year with 2,002 incidents recorded and 76,000 people involved, the Ministry of Health said on Friday.

Though the number of major incidents only accounted for 12.4 percent of the total, the 249 cases of major public health emergencies claimed 310 lives, said the ministry in a report.

The main types of public health emergencies reported in the first nine months were infectious diseases, food poisoning, vocational poisoning and environment accidents.

No public health emergencies were recorded in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, the ministry said.

The latest in a string of food poisoning incidents left a 30-year-old man dead and 12 people sick after they ate breakfast contaminated with rat poison at a government unit's dining hall in central China's Hubei Province.

According to the ministry, public health emergencies refer to major epidemics, diseases of unknown origin, major food or occupational poisoning cases, and other incidents, which may seriously endanger public health, including SARS and bird flu.