Twenty-five primary-school children died on Wednesday from apparent food poisoning in the central Philippine province of Bohol, officials said.
The students from the San Jose Elementary School in the town of Mabini had eaten snacks made from cassava roots in their mid-morning break before falling ill, officials said.
Up to 60 children were brought to various hospitals in the town, 25 of whom had died, said Philip Fuderanan, a spokesperson for the mayor of Mabini.
”As of 4pm, the number of casualties has reached 25,” Fuderanan told GMA television.
”The others are in different hospitals,” he said.
He said municipal health workers rushed to the hospitals to carry out tests on the surviving children, many of whom were described as in critical condition.
”They had eaten food with cassava as an ingredient,” Fuderanan said after the initial results of an investigation by doctors.
Municipal health authorities are investigating the incident, and radio reports said two vendors who sold the children the snack are being questioned.
”We are trying to account for all the children who had eaten [the root crop]. We are checking them up to make sure that they are alright,” said vice-mayor Ester Tabigi.
”Twenty-five did not make it and expired,” she said.
Cassava or manioc is a tropical food crop widely grown around the Asian region. In many impoverished Philippine towns, it is a substitute to rice, the staple food.
It is traditionally boiled, or processed as ingredients for native cakes and delicacies in the Philippines. Experts say certain types of cassava may contain substances that produce cyanide and are toxic to humans if unprocessed. — Sapa-AFP