The Gmail accounts of foreign reporters in at least two news bureaus in Beijing have been hijacked, similar to the ones against human rights activists that the search giant cited as a reason, a journalists' group in China said Monday.

Google cited the attacks as one reason it has decided to stop censoring its Chinese search engine and may ultimately close its China offices, a threat China has dismissed.

The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China said reporters in two bureaus had been hit and warned its members today to check whether their e-mail had been compromised.

The group did not name the news organizations hit by the attack or say when the hijacking occurred. However, Associated Press reported that one of the accounts belonged to one of its journalists.

It said in some cases the mail was being forwarded to a stranger's address.

We remind all members that journalists in China have been particular targets of hacker attacks in the last two years, the club said in a statement on its website.

Please be very careful about what links you click on, what e-mail attachments you open, and do run virus checks regularly.

Last year the group said it had received reports that the news assistants of foreign reporters in China were being targeted by e-mailed viruses.