Another person has died in a food poisoning case in a southwestern Chinese village, raising the death toll from Saturday night's four to five, local authorities said Sunday.

The food poisoning has meanwhile left 55 others in hospital for treatment, an increase of 26 from last night's figure, with 10 of them being in a "grave state", according to sources with the government of the Fengjie County, Chongqing Municipality.

The mass poisoning accident took place when a number of villagers were participating a birthday banquet for an elderly person Saturday evening at the Qixing Village, Kangle Township in Fengjie County.

Initial investigation shows that the food was poisoned by a raticide called "Dushuqiang" and was most likely by someone intentionally, according to the local government.

The Chongqing municipal government has sent a team of medical experts there to save the patients and local police are looking into the case.

(Xinhua News Agency December 26, 2005)