LOCAL authorities in Nanjing have confirmed that 38 people died as a result of eating poisoned food in East China’s Jiangsu Province, and that a suspect has confessed to contaminating the food with a strong rat killer.

　　Most of the 200 people poisoned in the Sept. 14 incident were now stable after being treated, while six are still in critical conditions.

　　Police in Jiangning District in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, have arrested Chen Zhengping in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan Province, Central China.

　　Police sources say Chen, a snack shop owner, confessed during a preliminary interrogation in Nanjing that he had poisoned fried dough sticks, sesame cakes and glutinous rice prepared by a rival snack shop.

　　The shop, which is believed to have supplied the food to the victims, remains closed.

　　Over 200 students from four schools and workers on a construction site in Tangshan, Nanjing, showed serious symptoms of poisoning Saturday morning immediately after they had eaten fried dough sticks, sesame cakes and glutinous rice served by a snack shop. (SD-Xinhua)