6 dead, 21 fall sick after eating poisonous root in China

Six persons have died and 21 hospitalised after consuming a meal that contained a highly poisonous root in China's Yunnan Province.

A resident of Jinniu Township in Binchuan County served guests a pork dish yesterday which contained monkshood root, state-run Xinhua news agency reported today.

Following the incident, the county government advised villagers against eating things that they could not identify.

Monkshood root is sometimes used as an anaesthetic or pain killer.