About 400 children in Indonesia's western Bengkulu province were rushed to the hospital with severe abdominal pain after eating free meals provided by their school.
Foreign media reports that this is the most severe mass food poisoning incident so far linked to Indonesian President Prabowo's flagship free nutrition meal program.
According to a video released by the Bengkulu provincial government, the incident occurred on August 28, and the affected children are between 4 and 12 years old.
Bengkulu's Deputy Governor Mian said that the kitchen responsible for meal preparation will suspend operations, and an investigative team from the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) along with relevant authorities will investigate the cause of the children's abdominal pain.
Dadan, the head of the National Nutrition Agency overseeing the free meal program, told foreign media that this kitchen had only recently started operating, but he did not immediately respond regarding the root cause of the food poisoning incident.
Prabowo launched the program to provide free nutritious meals for children and pregnant women in January this year, but the initiative has continually been plagued by food poisoning incidents across the country.
Since Indonesia implemented the free nutrition meal program, the number of beneficiaries rapidly surpassed 20 million, and authorities plan to increase the number to 83 million by the end of this year. The total budget for this program this year is 171 trillion Indonesian rupiah (44.107 billion ringgit).