India: 97 children hospitalised for food poisoning after eating pani puri at fair

Ninety seven children suffered from food poisoning after eating ‘pani puri’ at a fair in India's Madhya Pradesh, a health official said on Sunday.

All the victims consumed the spicy snack from the same shop on Saturday evening at the fair organised in the tribal-dominated Singarpur area, 38 km from the Mandla district headquarters, where people from various nearby villages had come to make purchases, he said.

Around 7.30pm, the children complained of vomiting and stomach pain, the district hospital’s civil surgeon, Dr KR Shakya, told PTI.

“Ninety seven children have been admitted to the district hospital for food poisoning. They are out of danger,” he said.

The ‘pani puri’ seller was detained and samples of the snack were sent for testing, a police official said.

Union minister Faggan Singh Kulaste, the parliamentarian from Mandla, met the children undergoing treatment at the hospital on Saturday night.

• India