Village buries its children
(China Daily/Agencies)
Updated: 2005-03-11 01:54

A Filipino villager lights a candle atop a coffin during a mass burial of 12 of the 30 victims of food poisoning in a San Jose town chapel in Bohol province, central Philippines, March 10, 2005 after more than 100 people were downed by fried cassava balls they had eaten during a snack break in a school. About 26 school children died and close to 80 remained in hospitals as Philippine officials investigate the cause of the food poisoning. [Reuters]

SAN JOSE, Philippines: Hysterical parents wept as they buried the bodies of schoolchildren among 30 who died after a tragic mass food-poisoning in an impoverished central Philippine town yesterday.

Ten white coffins adorned with paper flowers were carried one-by-one by mourners in the tiny chapel of San Jose village to be given the last rites before being lowered into a mass grave.

The 10 were among 30 San Jose children, aged seven to 13, who died on Wednesday just hours after consuming caramelized cassava sweets bought from street vendors at the school gates.

President Gloria Arroyo flew by helicopter into the area from central Cebu city to offer condolences to parents and ordered the release of relief funds.

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