Food poisoning claims nine

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-family:="" arial="">HAJIPUR: Nine children died on Sunday night at Ibrahimabad village under Raghopur assembly constituency due to food poisoning while 100 others are seriously ill.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="">Confirming the deaths, Vaishali DM H R Srinivas said on Monday that the children died after eating the prasad prepared by the villagers of Ibrahimabad on Saturday, who had assembled to perform a religious function called "</span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-style:="" italic="">Azardhi-puja</span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="">".</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="">Quoting the report of Hajipur SDM R K Sinha, who was camping at the village, the DM said the deceased ate prasad on Saturday evening after which their health started deteriorating.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="">By Sunday evening, about seven children had died with the symptoms of diarrhoea caused by food poisoning and by Monday morning two more deaths were reported.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="">"After getting the report, medical teams with 150 bottles of saline water and life-saving drugs and medicines were sent to the village," said a panchayat representative of Raghopur.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="">Meanwhile, seriously ill patients were being treated at Mohanpur, Malickpur and Chandpur health centres.Other affected persons were going under treatment at Patna and DM H R Srinivas was himself camping.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="">Talking to TNN, Srinivas said the sample of </span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-style:="" italic="">prasad </span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="">was collected for food-testing. The </span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-style:="" italic="">prasad </span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="">was prepared collectively by villagers and fearing legal problems, no one disclosed it.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="">Meanwhile, chief minister Rabri Devi personally inquired about the situation and directed the DM to take all steps to control the situation.</span></div> </div>