At least 120 people who ate noodles contaminated with rat poison were ill and many hospitalized in Ningxiang, a city in Central China's Hunan Province.
The poisoning incident may have been deliberate, an act of sabotage by a pair of Chinese men angry at the noodle factory owners in a business feud.
Patrons of 16 different restaurants reported severe diarrhoea and required medical attention in the incident.
The manufacturers of the poisonous noodle, two local villagers, have been detained by local police.
Eighty-nine of the ill are receiving treatment at two major hospitals in Ningxiang.
Four were said to faint en route to the provincial capital of Changsha, where they were sent for medical attention. The cities are about 58 kilometres apart.
The other victims did not require hospitalization.
Noodles served at the restaurants, which were later sealed up by local police, were bought from Yang Zhiqiang and Yang Yufeng, villagers in suburban Ningxiang.
Chemical examinations by local health authorities found that the noodle contained rat poison.
Local police said Yang Yufeng and Yang Zhiqiang contracted their small noodle factory out to two brothers whose surname were Xie. Last Sunday, the two Xies argued with the two Yangs because of disagreement on contracts, and the two Xies left Ningxiang angrily.
The two Yangs have been detained, and the investigation is on-going.
(Xinhua News Agency 08/08/2001)
