A person is transported in a helicopter after eating contaminated food at a funeral in the Peruvian Andes, authorities said on Tuesday, in Ayacucho, Peru, in this undated photo released August 7, 2018. Courtesy of Agencia Andina/Coen Handout via Reuters
Lima: Nine people in Peru died from eating contaminated food at a funeral, officials said Tuesday.
They were among 50 villagers who ended up hospitalized, including four in "seriously unstable condition" and 21 patients in critical condition, the Emergency Services said in a statement.
The victims were attending a funeral in a remote village in the Andes when they fell ill.
"The people were poisoned by food. It has to do with an insecticide that was in contact with their food," Minister of Health Silvia Pessah said on public television.
The infected people had eaten a type of wheat soup and drunk a corn liquor, the RPP channel said on its website.
The Armed Forces sent a plane and a helicopter to transport those in serious condition to hospitals with better equipment.
