All the poisoned students have received medical treatment in local hospitals and their lives are no longer in danger, a Linxiang city government official surnamed Deng told China Daily by phone.

Deng said that 12 pupils had recovered enough to go home Tuesday. However, it was not known whether the 12 actually had returned home.

Police suspect that someone intentionally put rat poison in the food and are carrying out an investigation, Deng added.

On Monday, pupils in Yucai School in Linxiang began to vomit, twitch or feel light-headed half an hour after they had lunch at the school canteen. Some even fainted.

The students were sent immediately to two local hospitals - Linxiang People's Hospital and Linxiang Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital.

A source at the People's Hospital said: "The poisoned students here have been treated well and their condition is stable."

Doctors and experts from large hospitals in Hunan Province went to Linxiang with medicines and medical instruments to offer help.

The local Linxiang government has given top priority to helping the poisoned students, Deng said. "The mayor, the secretary and all other major officials stopped what they were working on and concentrated on that."

According to a local source, the privately owned Yucai School has about 300 students.

The incident happened just after the students had sat the final exam of the winter term.

(China Daily January 30, 2002)