RIYADH: One child died and another eight, including a woman, were hospitalized due to food poisoning in Ashash village in Madinah region.

Dr. Ayman Yanbawi, assistant general director of health affairs in Madinah, said that public health preventive teams provided emergency services and medical assistance to a family of eight in Ashash village in Al-Madinah region after they suffered food poisoning caused by eating contaminated food.

Yanbawi added that their cases are medically stable and they are recovering, except for a child who passed away before his arrival to Khyber Hospital.

In a related development, two children died and another seven suffered from suffocation after the outbreak of a fire in their home east of Riyadh.

Abdullah Al-Morabied, official spokesman of the Red Crescent in Riyadh, said that the operations room received a report at 3:14 p.m. on Sunday on the occurrence of a fire in a house located on Sixtieth Road and Al-Khalifa Al-Maemoon Street. Accordingly, fire teams rushed to the scene to deal with the situation.

The incident resulted in the death of two children and seven minor cases of suffocation, he said.

All necessary emergency medical services were provided on location to the injured and it was not necessary to transfer them to the hospital, he said.