Two children have died and at least 200 people fallen ill over the past two days in a Mathura village after drinking “yellow, smelly” tap water supplied from tanks managed by the nagar panchayat.

The district administration stopped the water supply to Anyor village on Friday and sent doctors and ambulances but by then the villagers had managed to admit the ailing to various hospitals, the nearest of them 25km away.

Villager Kamlesh Sharma told reporters the water had turned foul 10 days ago but local officials ignored all the complaints till people began falling ill.

He said that among those admitted to hospital were 50 children.

“We dug up the pipes today (Friday), thinking they had got damaged and the contamination had happened at the breach,” Sharma said. “But we found no damage and realised that the polluted water was coming directly from the tanks of the nagar panchayat.”

He said the authorities eventually cleaned the tank on Friday, removing a huge amount of pollutants.

Pramod Garg, a local social worker, said: “The piped water is polluted because the tanks in the area have not been cleaned for years.”

Sher Singh, chief medical officer for the district, however, blamed a leak in the pipes for the contamination.