Grief ... a dad holds his daughter's lifeless body after she died on way to hospital
Cops are investigating how a lethal dose of insecticide got into the food at a school in the impoverished eastern state of Bihar. One official said the ingredients may not have been properly washed before the meal was cooked.
The children, between the ages of 8 and 11, fell ill on Tuesday soon after having lunch in Gandamal, 50 miles north of the state capital of Patna.
School authorities immediately stopped serving the meal of rice, lentils, soya beans and potatoes when the children began vomiting.
The lunch, part of a popular national campaign to give at least one daily hot meal to children from poor families, was cooked in the school kitchen.
The school cook was also reported to be seriously ill.
Victims ... survivors of the poisoning are treated in hospital in Patna
One girl called Savita, 11, told how she got a stomach ache and was sick soon after eating.
“I don’t know what happened after that,” she said at Patna Medical College Hospital, where she and 25 other children are being treated for poisoning.
Ten children are in a serious condition, officials said.
Authorities suspended an official in charge of the free meal scheme in the school and registered a case of criminal negligence against the school headmaster, who fled as soon as the children fell ill.
Angry villagers took the streets in protest, pelting a local police station with stones and setting cars and buses ablaze.
India’s Mid-Day Meal scheme is the world’s largest school feeding programme involving 120 million children across the country.
Dash ... a family takes a sick boy to hospital after a free school meal made him ill
The sun.
