Toll from consuming bitter sweetmeats rises to 14 in Pakistan

The toll in the recent mass food poisoning after consuming toxic laddus (sweetmeats) has risen to 14 in Pakistan's Punjab province.

Six people died on Friday after they ate sweetmeats brought from a shop in Layyah city on Wednesday, police quoted hospital sources as saying.

The police said people started vomiting after eating the sweetmeats.

At least 34 people were admitted to two different hospitals in Layyah on Wednesday.

Due to the victims' critical condition, both the hospitals referred 20 people to another hospital on Thursday, hospital sources said.

At least six people died on Wednesday after consuming the sweetmeats, police said.

Friday's deaths have raised the toll to 14, the police said. Three more people were in critical condition and on the ventilator.

Executive District Officer Ameer Abdullah said a health department team had sealed the shop from where the poisonous sweetmeats were bought. The department also seized wrappers of pesticides from the scene.

The police have also arrested the shop owners Khalid Mahmood and Tariq Mahmood.

The samples of the poisonous sweetmeats, along with other seized material have been sent to a forensic laboratory in Lahore.

--IANS

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