Thursday, August 24, 2000, updated at 16:23(GMT+8)
World
Three Thousand Taken Ill After Eating Rice in India
Three thousand people were hospitalized in central India on Wednesday after they ate a meal of rice and began to complain of dizziness, blurred vision and diarrhea, police said.
The people taken ill had purchased the rice from three traders in Bairagarh, a suburb of Bhopal, capital of Madhya Pradesh state, and eaten it after a religious ceremony, said Balbir Singh, assistant superintendent of police in Bhopal, 750 kilometers (450 miles) south of New Delhi.
Almost 80 percent of those who fell ill were women and children, he said.
The traders have been arrested and police have sealed their shops.
Three thousand people were hospitalized in central India on Wednesday after they ate a meal of rice and began to complain of dizziness, blurred vision and diarrhea, police said.