5 children die after eating holy offerings to goddess*

96 others fall seriously ill in India from sweets, rice at village shrine

Fri Feb 22, 2008 11:31am IST

PATNA, India (Reuters) - Five children have died and 96 other people
have fallen seriously ill in Bihar after eating sweets and rice offered
to a goddess at a village shrine, health officials said on Friday.

Children in Isua village, in Bihar, fell sick on Thursday during a
festival to mark the full moon shortly after eating the temple
offerings, known as prasad, made to Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of
learning.

"The children began vomiting and falling on the ground senseless,"
Ramvilas Ranjan, a health official in the district, said by telephone.

The dead children were between 4 and 7 years old. Most of those taken
sick are also children.

Ranjan thinks it was probably food poisoning. Villagers told him the
food had been kept in a store room for ten days. Tests are being done on
the prasad.

In a similar incident in 2004, 11 children died after eating prasad at a
different village temple in Bihar.