UP: 2-year-old dies, two in hospital after consuming rat poison ‘thrown by monkey’

BAREILLY: Three children, aged between two and five years, mistakenly consumed rat poison, believing it was for sugar in Uttar Pradesh's Budaun district on Saturday. The incident occurred when they were playing in a house compound, and a monkey threw a packet of powder from a tree.

Soon after, they began vomiting, and their parents rushed them to a nearby hospital. Police said Atif Ali (2) died, while his older brother Rahat Ali (4) and their neighbour's daughter Mannat (5) are currently under treatment.

Atif's father Guddu Ali, a carpenter and a resident of Wazirganj area, said, "The incident occurred when all the children of the locality were playing together. When foam started coming out of their mouths, my elder son Alshaiz noticed their condition and alerted us. We immediately took all three children to the hospital, where Atif died as he had consumed most of the powder, which was actually some poisonous substance. There was little else we could do in that situation."

Wazirganj SHO Dharmendra Singh said, "We came to know about the incident late on Saturday, but the family had buried the body by that time. We checked with the doctor and the local residents and found that it was an accident and the family didn't lodge any complaint in the matter. The condition of the other two children is stable at the hospital. We are still trying to trace the sources of the poisonous substance."