JEDDAH, 23 October 2007 — Three Indian children died in Qunfuda between Saturday and Sunday from what is thought to be food poisoning. The children died after they were brought to Qunfuda General Hospital, according to a hospital official.

Muhammad ibn Mahfouz, head of press relations at Qunfuda Health Department, said that the cause of death was “more likely to be related to some sort of food poisoning.”

“Samples of the food that was consumed on Saturday night by the family, including the parents, were sent to laboratories in Jeddah and Makkah to determine if the food was contaminated,” he said, adding that the authorities are awaiting the results.

The parents and children were taken to hospital in the early hours of Saturday with symptoms of food poisoning. The entire family had their stomachs washed.

Mahfouz said the parents, who were also hospitalized, survived but their three children died within a few hours. “The family claimed that they had smelled fumes of a insecticide in their house that came from their neighbor just before they were preparing to eat dinner bought at a local restaurant. They were confused about the cause of their immediate sickness, as they did not know whether it was the food or the insecticide that caused the problem,” said Mahfouz.

He added that a team of health experts from the hospital went to the family’s home to assess the situation. The team felt that the spraying of insecticides in a neighbor’s home might have contaminated the food that was eaten by the family. He added that the family’s house was unhygienic and lacked proper ventilation. The positioning of the two homes, with no ventilation, indicated that the spray of insecticides might have poisoned the food.

Mahfouz said six-year-old Anas was the first to pass away on Saturday morning. His sisters Mariam, 3, died the same night and Najla, 9, in the early hours of Sunday.

Arab News spoke to the bereaved couple on the phone last night. Muhammad Khalid Iqbal, an engineer with the Saudi Electrical Contracting Company who hails from Aligarh in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, said his wife Uzma and their three children consumed the food on Friday night.

Khalid denied the food was bought at a restaurant. He said his wife prepared the food, consisting of chapati (flat bread), dal made of pulses and vegetables, at home.

Anas was the first to wake up his mother around 3:30 a.m. on Saturday, complaining of a vomiting sensation. Uzma thought that Anas was affected by the cold that one of his sisters was suffering from for two or three days. “But after Anas vomited twice, Mariam woke up with the same symptoms and started vomiting. They were followed by Najla,” said Khalid, adding that he and his wife both experienced a similar feeling and vomited. Khalid has been resident in Qunfuda for the last 12 years. His wife joined him 10 years ago.

Khalid said the two-room house that the family lived in also had two Bangladeshi neighbors residing in a similar two-room flat. “The neighbors have been regularly using insecticides to tackle the problem of bed bugs and we have been smelling the fumes,” Khalid said.

Asked whether the cause of poisoning was food itself or the fumes from insecticides coming from their neighbors’ house, Khalid said: “Everything is under investigation. We are waiting for the report to come.”