The first victim Lu Shigang felt nauseous and complained of a stomach ache after eating some stuffed buns in a restaurant in the Xixi Town of Yongkang City at about 7:40 a.m. He was sent to a local hospital and was found to have been poisoned by rat poison.

All the 57 people, of whom some are pupils from two local primary schools and a kindergarten, are in hospital but are all in a stable condition. But doctors did not rule out the possibility of a relapse and noted that it would take a week for them to recover.

Police believe someone put the poison deliberately into the food and are conducting further investigations.