Some 86 primary students were poisoned after having lunch separately at the dining halls of three primary schools in Songyuan city of northeast China's Jilin Province Thursday, according to local official Friday.

Zhang Yi, deputy director of the health department of Jilin Province, said that soon after taking lunch, 86 students began to feel sick or stomachache while some of them suffered from vomit and diarrhea.

To the press time, some 48 poisoned students are still in the hospitals for treatment while the others have been discharged from hospitals upon recovery.

The course of the accident is under investigation, Zhang said.

(Xinhua News Agency December 6, 2003)