Over 50 children and a few adults had suffered food poisoning suspected to been caused from taking ice-cream outside a shrine at Kiliyalam in Kinanur-Karindalam village near here.
The incident came to notice after the children, who had visited the ‘Subramanian Kovil’ as part of the annual ‘Andiyoot’ festival, started to vomit on reaching their houses after the celebrations were concluded on Wednesday evening, police and the festival Organising Committee member M. Venugopal said on Thursday.
The children were taken to local hospitals here and got discharged after administering first aid treatment, Mr. Venugopal said.
It is suspected that the food poisoning could have been caused either after taking ice-cream from the make-shift stall outside the temple premises or due to the food taken from the temple as part of the festivities.
The Health Department officials here have taken the samples of ice-cream and the food prepared in the shrine sent for examination to ascertain the exact cause of the food poisoning, police said, adding that a case would be registered after obtaining the results of the food and ice-cream samples.
Mr. Venugopal said the unfortunate incident has underscored the need to take due care in keeping all illegal food vendors at bay when people gather in large numbers to attend religious or cultural events in the future.
