Arsenic poison hits villagers

More than 100 villagers in Hechi city, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, fell ill after drinking water containing arsenic believed to have been discharged by a local plant, a health department official said yesterday.

All the people affected in Xialuntun village have so far been discharged after hospital treatment, the official from the Guangxi health department, who declined to be named, told China Daily.

He said the incident occurred on Sept 29, and investigations showed that a river and a well in the village had been polluted with arsenic.