Sixty-one children fell ill after eating breakfast at their school canteen on Thursday in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, the school authority and local government said on Friday.

The children, all boarders aged nine to 13 at the central primary school of Jianhua town in the rural county of Ansai, suffered stomachaches and vomiting shortly after breakfast, said principal Wu Guangming.

By Friday morning, one child was still in hospital and the rest were back to school, Wu said.

He refused to say what the children had eaten for breakfast, saying the local health department had taken samples of the food for analysis.

A health department investigator said the food, including rice and cooked vegetables, was left over from the previous night and could have become contaminated.

The county's top education official Wang Jianjun said the school had been ordered to seal its stocks of rice, flour and cooking oil and buy new supplies.

The education department had ordered a food safety inspection at all the county's schools, he said. "We'll also instruct principals on safety issues."

(Xinhua News Agency March 16, 2006)