KUCHING: Fifty-three pupils of Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Bandar Baru Semariang here were yesterday sent to Buntal Health Clinic after they were found with stomachache, vomiting and down with diarrhoea.

This was believed to be due to food poisoning as it happened after recess at about 10.20am yesterday.

The victims are from Primary 2, 3 and 5, who claimed to have the symptoms after eating various foods sold at the school canteen, including nasi lemak, sausages, corn juice, ice cream and cucur udang.

A victim, Mohd Nasarudin Hamdan, 10, said that about 20 minutes after recess, his stomach began to feel painful, followed by headache and vomiting.

“I ate fried rice bought from the school canteen … at first I did smell something unpleasant but I just kept on eating as I was so hungry at that time,” he claimed when met while receiving treatment at the clinic.

Nasarudin’s schoolmate, Natalie Natasha Patie, 9, said she vomited after eating a sausage which she bought at the canteen during recess.

A 30-year-old mother of one of the pupils, who wants to be known only as Mary, claimed that her son, a Primary Three pupil complained to her that he found a maggot in his food, believed to have been bought from the canteen.

Mary claimed it (maggots in food) had been going on since one or two months ago, and she urged the school authorities to do something about the matter.

She got hold of the matter after her son did not arrive home as usual, which prompted her to go to the school where she was informed by one of the teachers about the incident.

But a teacher from the school, who refused to give her name, claimed that the symptoms might have been caused by gas leakage from fire extinguishers.

“The fire extinguishers were tempered with by some naughty pupils,” she said.

At the clinic, Medical Assistant Mohd Fauzin Abdullah, who was in charge of the clinic, said that saliva and blood samples had been taken from the pupils, to be investigated by the Divisional Health Office at Jalan Keretapi.

“Samples have been taken to see where the main source of the symptoms came from, as it is still to early to confirm the real culprit. It might have been caused by two reasons, either from the food sold at the canteen or the gas leak from the fire extinguisher. We will have the final results by Monday,” Fauzin said.

Eight vehicles were used to send the sick pupils to the clinic.

The pupils were discharged from the clinic after four hours of waiting for the arrival of the health inspector who was called in to investigate the matter.

A father of one of the pupils expressed dissapoint-ment with the late arrival of the inspector and expressed pity on his daughter who was ‘forced to wait too long’.

When met by reporters, the father claimed that Fauzin had been calling the inspector every five minutes to ask his whereabouts, but his answer was always the same: “I’m on my way.”

He hoped that incident such as this could be avoided in the future.

The headmaster of the school, when met declined to give any comment regarding the incident.