A farmer in Central China's Hunan Province allegedly killed two of his former lover's children on Thursday with powerful rat poison, police said.

Police accused Wei Entan from the Nanjiang Town of Pingjiang County with killing the children with tetramine rat poison in revenge over the refusal of his former lover, surnamed Chen, to marry him.

Wei allegedly went to the Daxing and Simei elementary schools on Thursday morning and gave poisoned food to Yu Yuanfang and Yu Xueling, Chen's son and daughter.

Yu Yuanfang and Yu Xueling shared the food with their classmates. A group of 27 children immediately fell sick and were sent to hospital, said police.

However, Yu Yuanfang and Yu Xueling died on the way to the hospital.

Of the 25 children still in hospital, 13 were in stable conditions but eight were still seriously ill, four of them in critical conditions, on Friday.

Wei, 26, a farmer, attempted to commit suicide by drinking a bottle of highly toxic fluid he had prepared less than four hours after the poisoning. He was taken to hospital unconscious.

A police investigation showed that Wei first met Chen three years ago. The pair began an affair early this year while doing business in Nanxian County. They continued the affair after they returned to Pingjiang County in September, said police.

Wei had asked Chen to marry him several times but was refused.

Police claimed Wei swore to take revenge.

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