At least two people lost their lives while over 26 others, including children and women, were left severely ill in a suspected case of food poisoning in Arwal district of Bihar on Wednesday.

All the victims had eaten at a stall at a Durga Puja fair.

A fair is going on near Oldaz Bazaar and Rohai village under Karpi police station, attracting thousands. A large number of food stalls have also come up there to cater to the visitors.

Many people had eaten sweets, bread pakoda, samosa and jalebi from a stall at the fair on Tuesday evening while visiting the fair on the occasion of Mahanavami celebrations. They started showing symptoms like nausea, diarrhoea, stomachache and breathlessness in a few hours.

The family members of those who fell ill rushed them to the nearby primary health centre and later took them to Arwal district hospital for better treatment. Many took their kin to private hospitals.

However, two persons among those who had taken ill died on Wednesday. They have been identified as Lalbabu Bind, 33, and his son Gautam Kumar, 8, of Itawa village.

Arwal district hospital deputy superintendent Raman Aryabhatt told reporters that Gautam died while undergoing treatment there while his father was already dead when he was brought to the hospital.

“This seems to be a case of food poisoning. The affected people were also having difficulty in breathing. A team of doctors is treating all the people admitted here and their condition is improving,” Aryabhatt said.

Another doctor at the hospital pointed out that the number of people affected could be more because many of them were taken to private hospitals and clinics for treatment.

The local police have neither registered an FIR so far nor have received any complaints from the victims or their family members.

The family members of the people suffering from food poisoning staged a demonstration outside the hospital and demanded a government crackdown on people selling spurious or poor-quality foodstuffs.