China deaths blamed on rat poison

Doctors examine a poisoned girl at a hospital in Nanjing

NANJING, China -- Rat poison is the suspected cause of an outbreak of food poisoning in China, in which dozens of people are believed to have died.

"Initial investigations indicate there was rat poison in the food that was served to the victims," the China Daily quoted Zhou Qiang, a publicity official with the Jiangsu provincial government, as saying.

He said the poison could have been deliberately put into the food by someone, but public security authorities were still looking into the case that left hundreds of patrons of a small Nanjing store ill.

All of those affected fell sick on or shortly after Saturday morning.

The victims were mostly students from four schools and transient workers from a construction site in Tangshan, a small town to the east of Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province.

Five hundred medical personnel have been mobilized to deal with the case, said the China Daily.

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The victims fell ill after eating the food from Heshenyuan Soy Milk restaurant, a designated supplier of breakfast to schools in the area.

The catering service has since been shut down and its owner has been taken into custody for questioning

Meanwhile central government authorities in Beijing have ordered "all efforts be made to save the victims" the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

It added that the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Public Security had both dispatched teams to the city to help medical staff and investigate the outbreak.

Several of the victims were reported to have collapsed, some coughing up blood, just minutes after eating at the restaurant.

Toll mystery

Reports in China's state-controlled media on the exact numbers of casualties have been mixed and confused.

On Saturday the official Xinhua news agency reported that 41 people had died and up to 400 had been made ill by the poisoning.

However, that report was quickly deleted and replaced by an earlier story saying only that "a number of victims" had died and more than 200 were poisoned.

The Web site of the state-run People's Daily newspaper followed a similar line saying "several people" had died, but specifying no actual number.

Such confusion is not unusual in the reporting of disasters in China where state media often faces strict controls in its coverage of incidents deemed sensitive by the central government.

City departments and medical centers contacted by western news agencies said they had been ordered to make no comment on the outbreak or casualties.

According to The Associated Press, hospital officials all cited a city Health Bureau order not to provide information to journalists.

'Keeled over'

Some local eyewitnesses however have told reporters they believe dozens of people may have died with scores of ambulances seen ferrying victims to hospitals across the city.

One shop owner was quoted by Reuters news agency as recalling how he saw one elderly man collapse after eating breakfast at the restaurant Saturday.

"It happened right there in front of my store," Peng Yongqing was quoted as saying. "One minute he was sitting there eating and the next he stood up and keeled over. We all thought he was choking, we had no idea what was wrong."

Penh said he had heard that the man had died on the way to hospital.

Exact figures on the casualties have not been made available

Previous mass food poisoning outbreaks in China have been blamed on a variety of causes including use of cheaper industrial salts rather than proper culinary salt.

Last year police arrested two owners of a noodle factory on charges of lacing their product with rat poison, causing at least 89 consumers to be hospitalized.

Last September Nanjing was hit by another food scandal when state television broadcaster CCTV accused a local bakery of recycling old fillings for mooncakes -- a popular festival delicacy -- and wrapping them in fresh crusts.

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.