Twenty-two children have died after eating a free lunch feared to contain poisonous chemicals at a school in eastern India, officials said on Wednesday, sparking angry protests and riots.

Another 30 children remained ill in the hospital after consuming the meal of lentils, vegetables and rice cooked at a village primary school in the impoverished state of Bihar on Tuesday.

"After 21 deaths, we have just heard that one more child has died while undergoing treatment," the state's health secretary, Vyas Ji, said, as suspicions stirred over the possible presence of insecticide in the food.

The scene was dramatic as children with their limbs dangling and their heads lolling to one side were brought to a hospital in the Bihar city of Chhapra.

Other children lying listless on stretchers were placed on intravenous drips at the hospital while relatives wept outside.

"My children had gone to school to study. They came back home crying and said it hurts," one distraught father told a local TV network.

"I took them into my arms, but they kept crying, saying their stomach hurt very badly."

Running to the school to find out what happened, the father said he saw "many bodies of children lying on the ground".

Doctors and state officials said the exact cause of the deaths will be known only after autopsies and food sample tests.

Bihar Education Minister PK Shahi said the midday meal "appears to be poisonous".

The children, all aged under 10, were buried near the school in the village of Masrakh on Wednesday morning as angry residents armed with poles and sticks took to the streets of Chhapra.

The mob smashed windows of police buses and other vehicles and turned over a police booth in the city where the school is located.

"Hundreds of angry people staged a protest ... since late Tuesday night, demanding stern action against government officials responsible for this shocking incident," said district government official SK Mall.

A preliminary investigation showed the meal may have contained traces of phosphate from insecticide in the vegetables, local government official Amarjeet Sinha said.

He said doctors were treating victims with atropine, a chemical compound effective against phosphate poisoning.

Media reports quoted villagers as saying the use of contaminated, foul-smelling mustard oil for cooking could also have caused the deaths.

"Investigators are examining midday meal samples and samples of victims' vomit. Only the final report of inquiry will reveal the real cause," Sinha said.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar announced compensation of 200,000 rupees ($3,370) for each of the bereaved families.

Free lunches are offered to poor students in state-run schools as part of government welfare measures in many of India's 29 states.

AFP-Reuters

(China Daily 07/18/2013 page12)