India, Jan. 31 -- Nearly 70 schoolchildren fell ill in suspected food poisoning allegedly after eating lunch in an ashram school in Bhatsai in Shahpur tehsil in Maharashtra's Thane district on Wednesday afternoon, officials aware of the matter said.

Officials said the incident took place shortly after lunchtime at Gadgebaba Ashram School in Shahapur, which is being run under a tribal development.

Initially, 25 to 30 students complained of stomach ache, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea after consuming lunch at the school supplied by a donor, said officials. Later, the number rose to nearly 70, and around 10 students are in critical condition, they said. All of them have been admitted to a government hospital in Shahapur.

According to the ...