Over 150 people fell ill and many of them have been hospitalised in Diphu town in Assam’s Karbi Anglong district on Wednesday, following a suspected case of food poisoning at a state government event, NDTV reported.

Over 500 people attended the inauguration of the first academic session of the MBBS course at the new Diphu Medical College and Hospital on Tuesday. The programme was also attended by Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Officials said that the people fell ill after consuming two food packets that were distributed at the event – one with sweet and other snacks and another that had egg biryani, reported EastMojo. “It looks like a case of food poisoning,” said Karbi Anglong Deputy Commissioner Ng Chandra Dhwaj Singha. “We have sent the food samples to Guwahati Medical College and Hospital.”

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The hospital authorities said that 198 people reported sick and over 130 people were admitted by Wednesday.

On Thursday, Sarma said at a press conference in Guwahati that 145 people were admitted to hospital since Tuesday night and 28 of them were discharged, while 117 of them were still undergoing treatment, PTI reported. The health minister said that he also had food from the same kitchen and suffered a stomach upset but had recovered.

One of the persons who attended the event died as well, but the cause of his death has not been confirmed yet. “We are inquiring into the exact cause of his death,” Singha said on Wednesday. “The post-mortem report will be out tomorrow [Thursday]”.

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The deceased has been identified as 35-year old Kangua Be, a resident of Bokoliaghat, about 53 kilometres from Diphu, according to NDTV.

An unidentified official said the district joint director of the health department has been asked to conduct an inquiry into the matter, according to East Mojo.