A kindergarten teacher in Jiaozuo, Central China's Henan Province, was detained after being accused of poisoning 23 children with nitrite.
Several parents of the children at Jiaozuo's Mengmeng kindergarten recently said their children were hospitalized after they were vomiting and fainting, the Beijing News reported on Monday.
As of Monday, most children already have left the hospital after recovery, said the report.
One parent surnamed Li said that he received a kindergarten teacher's call saying that his child vomited and fainted after eating something on Wednesday morning.
His child was unconscious when he arrived. "The vomit was all over (my child's) pants. There were other children who were also throwing up, and they looked pale," said Li.
Other children were sent to the hospital and another parent surnamed Hu said that the hospital had to flush his child's stomach. Hu's child was diagnosed with "poisoning by nitrite."
Nitrite is a carcinogen and heavy metal, which harms the liver and kidney after mistakenly eating.
The victims were all from the same grade. They all ate certain porridge, which was supposed to taste sweet. "But the children said the porridge tasted salty," said one parent.
After an investigation, the police found that a teacher in the kindergarten put nitrite in the children's porridge that day, which may have led to the children's illness.
The local public security bureau in Jiaozuo has detained the teacher, said the report.
Employees at the Jiaozuo's education bureau are also investigating the case and already sent the children to other kindergartens.
