Rat poison blamed for China deaths

QINGHE, China, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- Six people, including the cook, died in China this month when he accidentally added rat poison to rice dumplings he prepared, authorities confirmed Saturday.

Police investigators said Chen Ruyan of Qinghe Village in central China's Hubei Province had kept the poison "Dushuqiang" in the kitchen and mistakenly added it, rather than flour, to the dumplings to thicken them, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Two elderly people who ate the dumplings Nov. 11 collapsed within about 20 minutes and died. Six others were rushed to a hospital where four of them died and two were in critical condition.

Investigators determined Chen, who used to sell the rat poison for profit, had wrongly placed the chemicals inside the kitchen when he moved his home. An autopsy found traces of rat poison in Chen's nails and more than 200 more grams of the same poison in a cupboard at his home.