Four children have died of food poisoning after drinking a home-made toad soup prepared as a health tonic, reports Yangcheng Evening News.

Lin, a farmer woman in Beidou Town, Taishan, caught four toads while working in the fields on Monday.

Having heard toad soup was a kind of traditional Chinese medicine that dispels "inner heat" and improves digestion, Lin used her catch to prepare some and fed it to her three children and a niece.

But the children started vomiting and lost feeling in their limbs one hour after drinking the soup. They all died in hospital.

Experts confirmed that toads are used in traditional Chinese medicine. But certain poisonous organs must be removed, said Zhu Shaofan, a food specialist with the Guangzhou Patriotic Sanitation Office.

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