Over 300 employees of BYD Company Ltd, a carmaker in Shanghai, were sent to hospital after a number of them became unwell on Thursday.

It's been confirmed that 22 workers are suffering from food poisoning after eating undercooked kidney beans in the company's cafeteria.

Ten employees remain in hospital, said a source at the Songjiang Branch of the Shanghai First People's Hospital.

The company, which has 10,000 employees, asked 300 people who'd eaten lunch at the same time as those who became unwell to go to hospital for a check up. Many of them returned to work on Thursday afternoon.

Shanghai's food and drug administration authorities confirmed the employees became sick after eating Thursday's lunch served in the company's cafeteria.

The cafeteria has been closed and will not reopen until it is confirmed to be sanitary, said a source. The company will pay the hospital costs of their employees.?

(Xinhua News Agency January 19, 2007)