Sixty-one children fell ill after eating breakfast at their
school canteen on Thursday in northwest China's Shaanxi Province,
the school authority and local government said on Friday.
The children, all boarders aged nine to 13 at the central
primary school of Jianhua town in the rural county of Ansai,
suffered stomachaches and vomiting shortly after breakfast, said
principal Wu Guangming.
By Friday morning, one child was still in hospital and the rest
were back to school, Wu said.
He refused to say what the children had eaten for breakfast,
saying the local health department had taken samples of the food
for analysis.
A health department investigator said the food, including rice
and cooked vegetables, was left over from the previous night and
could have become contaminated.
The county's top education official Wang Jianjun said the school
had been ordered to seal its stocks of rice, flour and cooking oil
and buy new supplies.
The education department had ordered a food safety inspection at
all the county's schools, he said. "We'll also instruct principals
on safety issues."
(Xinhua News Agency March 16, 2006)