At least 30 students fell sick after eating at a snack bar close to their schools Wednesday in east China's Zhejiang Province, the local government said.

The students, from a high school and a primary school nearby, were hospitalized Wednesday afternoon for stomachache and vomiting, after they ate beef soup for lunch, said a spokesman of the local government in Cangnan County in the booming manufacturing city of Wenzhou.

Sources with Cangnan People's Hospital said they were all out of danger by Wednesday night and were expected to go home on Thursday.

The county government has launched an investigation and samples of the food have been sent for lab work.

(Xinhua News Agency April 5, 2007)