Tourists rushed to hospital after food poisoning

Thirty-nine students and teachers on a train home from Beijing were rushed to hospital after they exhibited food poisoning symptoms on Tuesday morning, according to the official Weibo account of China Railway Corporation.

The 39 were members of a 392-strong tour group who left the capital on Monday evening after the conclusion of their tour. All were students and teachers from the second senior high school in Sichuan province's Neijiang.

They went to the station after lunch in Beijing and had some instant food their travel company offered for dinner on the train.

The train left Beijing at 6:06 pm and was headed for Chongqing.

Before arriving in the Henan provincial capital Zhengzhou at around midnight, 24 of the group were found to have symptoms of emesis, nausea and stomachache. They were diagnosed with food poisoning after being rushed to five hospitals in Zhengzhou.

Another 15 of the group were found to have similar symptoms as the train left Zhengzhou and continued its trip, and had to be sent to hospitals in Wuhan and Enshi, Hubei province.

Police are now investigating the case.