Headmistress in Hebei held as two girls die after eating poisoned yoghurt
Principal arrested after pupils from a rival kindergarten die from drinking poisoned yogurt
The headmistress of a kindergarten in Pingshan county, Hebei, has been arrested over the fatal poisoning of two girls at another kindergarten.
The girls - cousins Ren Xinyi , five, and Ren Zhaoning , six - collapsed on the night of April 24 after drinking yogurt contaminated with rat poison. Xinyi was certified dead after being rushed to hospital, while Zhaoning died on Tuesday, the local government said in a press release issued yesterday.
It said the girls' grandmother, Ren Shuting , had told police that she took the girls to the Lianghe Zhongxin Kindergarten on April 24 and found a plastic bag containing a pencil, a notebook and the yogurt on the way. She took the plastic bag home.
The three of them drank the yogurt after school and were poisoned, the statement said.
The Hebei Youth Daily quoted the grandmother as saying that she screamed for help after the girls fainted, and neighbours took the girls to a nearby clinic.
Zhang Weidong, a doctor at the clinic, said the girls had suffered serious spasms and it was decided they should be sent to hospital, the newspaper said.