A food poisoning on Tuesday in Lichuan City of central China's Hubei Province has claimed 10 lives by Wednesday morning, with 22 others still hospitalized, according to the provincial health bureau.

Thirty-three people fell sick in the Huaping Village after they ate meals at the home of villager Zhu Fabin at noon Tuesday. All the sick villagers had attended the same funeral. About 15 minutes after the start of the meal, one person died on the spot.

Zhong Guokun, an official with the provincial health bureau, said that all the 10 dead villagers died on the spot or on the way to a local hospital.

Local medical experts suspected that the villagers ate some kind of rat poison.

A team of medical experts sent by the provincial government is on the way to the incident site.

(Xinhua News Agency October 22, 2003)