Dibrugarh(Assam): At least 70 people, including women and children, were taken ill after consuming food at a puja in Chabua of upper Assam`s Dibrugarh district, official sources said today. Last night the people had eaten food items prepared with rice in the house of one person at Rajabari village along Chabua town, the sources said.
By early this morning they began vomiting and having severe stomach upsets forcing them to be admitted to hospital. Twentyfive of them were taken to St lukes Hospital at Chabua, while the rest including 15 children critically ill were admitted to the Assam Medical College Hospital here, the sources said.
Fermentation of the rice item due to the prevailing hot weather or the rice being originally old and rotten may have caused the food poisoning, the doctors treating the sick here said