A total of 22 people, including five children, were taken to hospitals in Kampong Speu province on Wednesday after buying and eating noodles with tainted vegetables from a vendor, officials said yesterday.

The victims from two villages, Romeas and Tuol Prinh, in Kong Pisei district’s Pich Mony commune, began to experience diarrhoea and vomiting after consuming the noodles sold to them by a woman named Tae Ny, villager Nob Sok said.

“Many villagers buy the noodles sold by Ny every day, and there is no problem, except [on Wednesday],” he said. “Once this happened, medics from the commune and district hospitals came and helped.”

Chhoy Savoan, a medic at Pich Mony Toek Laork Commune Referral Hospital, said eight victims were taken to the district hospital by ambulance. All patients were released the same day.

Sem Vuthdy, Pich Mony commune deputy police chief, said the vendor had been called in for questioning, but was released after tests found that insecticides on the vegetables were to blame.